Hairy cheer

 

Hi 

The rain is pattering on the roof as I type this, not great for festive cheer and fevered seasonal shopping, but hopefully it won't impact your own Christmas displays and sales too much. We had our first mince pies this week and put up our very modest mess room tree and the same tatty decorations which appear every year. Sometimes it's not the trendy colour scheme that matters it's the warmth and familiarity of getting out the same set of second-hand garlands and baubles to set the scene. Our own tree is also up but not quite decorated yet. The lights failed and I'm awaiting a fresh set before that gets done, but I have put a picture of it from a previous year on the cover of our Mail Chimp emails. You won't believe it but I made this myself, or maybe you would! A few old wooden venetian blind slats and some 2 x 2 was all it took and the homemade mini paper chains top it all off. We've had the same tree since 2008 and the paper chains I must have knocked up about three years prior to that, as I have pictures of those on the MK1 version of the wooden tree where I screwed pieces of dormant beech hedge branches to another piece of 2 x 2. That one didn't last as well as MK2.

Great trip up to New Leaf Nurseries with our reinvigorated NBIS group this week. Good attendance and plenty of new ideas to cherry pick and bring home, as well as catching up with the general mood of growers from across the ornamental sector. I can't say it was bubbling with huge anticipation of mega sales and profitability, but everyone was definitely looking forward with a positive hat on despite horror stories of banks letting long term customers down, with the comment by one bank manager that banks weren't in the business of taking risks. So it's the same old story; The bank is will lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. The other scary topic of conversation was the increasing costs of labour and how dependant we all are on it. I just had an email from the NFU reporting that when the rise comes in next April (4.1% increase) the minimum wage rates will have increased by 52% in five years which I struggled to believe, however I have checked our figures and we are certainly at about 50% over that period, no wonder margins have been getting harder to find when this is our biggest single production cost.

New improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three major changes next year to how we prepare our plants for delivery to retailers. We are aware that some sites do struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. The plants thrive when kept here on the nursery over long periods, 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 mentioned last week 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. As optimistic as ever, we have increased prices by just 5p per pot, which is a little under 2%, possibly not enough, but it is what we believe to be an acceptable change. We are hoping that even more improvements in productivity, together with growing sales volumes, will help us maintain a sustainable margin, but we will have to review the position again in 12 months time.

Availability list.

Get ready for winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red is looking really good with bud and some red 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.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.