Hi.
I hope you all had a great Christmas break. It was nice to have a few days off even if it all seemed to pass by so quickly. A rotation of visiting and hosting various groups of family and friends whirled by, with lots of fun and laughs and a tear or two for those not with us this time round. We set ourselves a challenge before Christmas to clear the 'dining room' and upstairs office in order to accommodate all the beds needed. Both had become dumping grounds for various stuff which couldn't find another home and it us took three weekends to find both floors again. The loft had to be thinned out for all the excess from the office to be relocated, and then the dining room excess was thinned before relocating the remaining treasures into the new spare space in the office. Finding lots of old photos, wage slips and other memorabilia did delay the process somewhat and also make us both feel a bit ancient! Still, on the bright side, I was able to put together my 4 lane Scalextric track in the dining room and reconstruct the four cars necessary to run some great races for the 50+ year old children who visited over the break.
Winter seems to have arrived at last. No snow here just yet but it looks like we might get a flurry or two early next week. We are putting the final touches together to be ready for the upcoming plant sales season. This year's label delivery should be delivered late next week or early the following, and I hope to have the new capillary mats cut very soon, together with this year's batches of wooden POS boards and latex notices all printed and treated. Most of this winters marketing box production and repairs are complete, just waiting on another small wood delivery to finish those off. Weather permitting, in a couple of weeks time I will be looking to start the first seed sowing sessions to germinate under the heat and LED lights in the propagation tunnel, getting us off to a quick start in the spring, and trying to cover the gap that can appear between the overwintered herb stock and the spring potted batches.
Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026
We are introducing three major changes next year in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We are aware that some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive over long periods when kept here on the nursery, the irrigation is pretty accurate and applied in a timely manner in the correct volumes, and the nutrition levels are set to give long lasting healthy growth. But once we set them free, the real world isn't always so kind to them. As I have mentioned previously peat-free compost mixes struggle to hold onto as much water as peat and also don't grip the nutrients as tightly either. When added to the extra breathability of our Hairy Pots, quicker drying out can be an issue, especially if the ideal of 'little and often' applications of water is not a practical option. When the plants dry out they then tend to get over watered which flushes out the available nutrients resulting in premature deterioration in condition. To help reduce these stresses and provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are doing the following;
1/ Adding a reusable, recycled wool capillary mat in the bottom of each tray which will hold onto extra water for the plants to take up. These are expensive and will need to be returned for reuse with the boxes.
2/ Adding extra wetting agent at despatch to allow the compost to hold onto more water and rewet more easily if dry.
3/ Adding a dose of organic slow release feed as a top dressing to compensate for any leaching of nutrients.
It will be interesting to see what a difference these measures will take over the coming season, hopefully it will lead to more sales all round.
Prices for 2026.
As all years seem to be, it's been a challenging one, with one big increase in particular adding to our costs, on top of all the usual inflation+ pressures on virtually all materials and young plant costs. I know it's the same for everyone, but the 10% addition to labour costs, made up of the minimum wage increases and higher NI payments, has hit us hard. Labour is far and away our biggest cost and although we try to be more efficient year on year, it is impossible to keep pace with such big changes. We have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%.
Availability list.
The winter flowering Helleborus Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red/purple colour showing too.
Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first few flowers are already showing with heaps more to come over the coming months. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.
Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They may take a slight backward step if it gets properly cold, but they are all pretty tough and are standing well against the frosts so far.
The first spring bulbs are here and a few are already showing their first buds. Not much in the way of colour but it won't be long. Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers.
Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
