End of a hairy era

Hi

Bank holiday weekend coming up so it's holiday time all round. If only. Luckily there is still a week of August to go after the long weekend so that almost feels like a bonus, and gives us another few days to try and catch up with more tunnel tidying and potting. Nearly got a day off on Monday but I have just been informed that the next compost delivery is booked in on Monday afternoon so that messes that plan up, mind you I'm not complaining as it looks like we are going to come close to running out tomorrow and we can't pot much without it. The Dutch drivers aren't on holiday!

We had the potential to get a bit extra potted this week with a little more time on hand and a good show of hands to help out, but we were scuppered by running out of prepared tunnel space, so it was all hands on deck shifting a load of stock about, cutting it back, gapping up and setting down again in a cleaned area. It leaves all the older stock in one location and frees up whole tunnels for potting fresh stock into which is very gratifying when you see it completed but frustrating until you get there. I saw an interesting email from Fargro this week who where informing all their grower customers about the implementation of the packaging tax (EPR) that is being implemented over the next few years. Up until now there have been limited financial effects on producers especially the smaller ones, but that is about to change. Anything that is related to household packaging (all the stuff that ends up with the consumer) will have a charge made against it to cover the potential cost of disposing of it. So all bedding packs and plant pots will have a charge of £423 per tonne added to their purchase cost, so the grower will now cover the cost of final disposal. Fargro and some other suppliers are doing some sort of joint protest letter about how it could affect the industry in a very negative way, but I must say I was delighted to see this. Isn't it about time we faced up to our responsibilities and paid for the mess we create by flooding the consumer market with long life single use plastics. Thankfully we should avoid these charges as, by design, nothing we send out ends up as disposable waste with the consumer, it is all easily biodegradable. Even with our retailer sites the waste level is either zero or at worst very minimal, depending if on the rare occasion a bit of trolley wrap has been used on the delivery trolley. To be honest it makes little real financial difference to us as we are already paying ten times more for our coir pots than we would be paying for a plastic equivalent, but it does make me feel slightly better that there is now some penalty being paid for plastic use by everyone else, however small it seems to us.

Big day today with the last of the daily workload in the micro-prop lab finishing. There have only been three staff in there at any one time and for most of the last 4 months they have been out in despatch helping get through all the delivery preparations for at least three days a week. We have been winding the operation down for over a year now, with the last few months spent rooting out the last of the stock to come out onto the nursery for the final time. Today saw the last of that rooting, just leaving a few tubs of plantlets in the growth room that might move on to another grower. We were officially due to close it all at the end of May but the final throws of production caused it to drag out a bit longer than expected. Now I get my hands on three more staff to fit in around the nursery, so maybe we will catch up at last! The end of an era for us.

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose is the more advanced, but White is close behind. Another autumn flowering line on the list this week is the Cerostigma with its stunningly blue flowers. Not in bud yet but relatively neat and bushy at the moment. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop now in bud.

The summer flowering Allium Millenium is still looking great, they just go on and on. Compact and neat Achillea Milly Rock varieties coming into bud again for a quick splash before the weather turns. The Salvia Lip's series are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back.

Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. There is a batch of the Astible Astary plants coming into bud, both in the pink and white varieties. The Aster Alpha series are now showing tight bud, surely summer can't be drawing in just yet! The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are now also showing nice tight bud and the odd opening flower now as well.

Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured Helleborus orientalis varieties. A mass of flower bud has appeared on a batch of short and bushy Lythrum Dropmore Purple. Not many, so don't hang about. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.