Hectic and Hairy

Hi

Wow that was a very hectic week, I have yet to add up the final numbers but it was our busiest week ever on the hairy pot front. Not quite sure how we made it through but all the orders were dispatched and fingers crossed all the drivers make it home. By chance we actually managed a whole week with all the vans on the road which was vital under the circumstances. Let's hope that trend continues into next week as the Easter weekend approaches. It is always a very stressful couple of weeks for everyone at both ends of the supply chain, as we try and juggle everything around all the bank holidays at potentially our busiest time of year. I am hoping a lot of you are well stocked as I'm not sure we can do a repeat of last week although we will always do our very best. In reality we are extremely likely to be still delivering on Good Friday even if we are a bit short of staff back at base on that day, but hopefully we will be sorted before Saturday. Deliveries will resume on Tuesday although we will be preparing deliveries on the Monday.

Please do try and get your orders in ASAP for both weeks, especially if you are a long way from Winchester. We are likely to have to use Bleach of Lavant for so quite a few orders and they need us to book trolleys with them early at these peak times.

Apologies, I had intended to help ordering by getting these lists out earlier but we were without power yesterday afternoon and evening and it's very difficult these days to get anything done without the computer and internet available! It has taken a while to get everything up and running again but here we are. It was all to do with the solar panel connection to the mains which naturally turned out to be more complex than usual. hey can see me coming.

Hope life is not too stressful out there and we can all sit back at the end of a long week and rejoice in the amount of interest and joy there still is in our trade. Not too much disruption from Donald, so far, and long may that last. I'll shut up and get this list out there. Have fun.

Availability list.

We have hit our 'very hungry patch' with the herbs. The overwintered range has been hit hard and we have run out of quite a few lines. Demand has been very high and there were a few losses, some we are waiting to freshen up after the wet cold winter, and some of the newer stock is waiting to get big enough to sell. Please bear with us through what is a frustrating period. It's a price we pay for not overprotecting our stock overwinter, those that survive are nice and tough but, depending on the winter, survival, growth and demand can be very variable.

A surprise bonus this week and slightly out of the usual flowering schedule. The stunning little bright yellow petticoat narcissus (Narcissus bulbocodium Conspicuus) has suddenly produced a mass of buds with flowers now opening. We must have had a specially prepared batch as they usually flower much earlier than this, but I'm not complaining they are a stunner. Get them while they last I don't have very many left in stock.

All the Bergenia varieties have come into bud and flower. Strong bushy plants with colour now showing. Multiple chunky flower heads on the Diamond Drops. Our Alliums are grown without heat, so exposed to frost and nicely toughened. Purple Sensation, cristophii, Ostara are all showing well with Ostara looking very smart. This week there is a newcomer on the list, a newer and later emerging variety to us (karataviense) which looks like a winner, Large pale mauve heads on very short stems and the odd bud has already formed.

The first tight buds are appearing on some of the Salvia nemerosa types and many of the Scabious. Ipheion uniflorum is following on from the white form which has now all gone, The pale blue buds are just beginning to show, we have to look quite hard, but they will very quickly lengthen and open and more will follow. There are still plenty of Wild Primrose (P. vulgaris) looking and smelling great, in bud and flower with still more to follow.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.