Hairy Summer

Hi. 

I hope you coped ok last week especially if you got baked like us in the south.  With a bit of luck that is summer done and dusted. It was a crazy hot week for May and disrupted so much stuff, from irrigation nozzle blow-outs where the rubber flanges softened in the heat, to the air compressor not working after midday when it’s thermal cut-out clicked in. Productivity dropped through the floor as people struggled to cope as we had to find jobs they could do in the shade and by a fan. The now redundant lab buildings were restarted so we could get some air-con relief during break times, although there were a few who seem to revel in the high temperatures and they did allow us to get some things done as planned.  Sales were hit fairly hard which is understandable, but with cooler weather and some welcome rain due next week hopefully things will bounce back. 

One of our drivers commented on how exciting and attractive our stock was looking in several sites he visited this week. The larger stock supplied by others at much higher prices appeared to be less attractive having moved into a less impulsive price bracket and of course lacking the extra feel-good factor of a plastic-free hairy pot purchase! The trouble is that we are so used to handling our own hairy pots and wooden boxes, anything incorporating plastics seems a bit run-of-the-mill, unnatural and off-trend. 

Don’t forget we will be keeping a wide range of attractive perennials and herbs going in our 13cm pots right through until the Autumn, and all at take-me-home prices! Big day today for Caroline. Not allowed to say how old other than she hasn’t caught me up yet. We celebrated in the usual way, cake for all at coffee break and another late night on the nursery. Luckily with being slightly less busy than usual I was able to slip out for a couple of hours over the Bank Holiday and make some special purchases, mostly involving a small collection of terracotta planters to freshen up the back door area. It went down a lot better than the bag of organic spinach I produced one year! What a lucky girl. 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The heat this week has pushed a few more varieties into bud which is great for adding even more excitement on the sales benches. We even have a few Asters in bud this week, which are usually something we associate with late summer! Compact varieties of Achillea Milly Rock are looking great, chunky stock with plenty of flower shoots appearing. The pretty Foam Flower Tiarella wherrii are now in flower and bud All three Erigeron’s are nicely in bud and looking summery. Tight growth making neat compact plants. The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. There are some cracking Verbena’s ready to go. Don’t miss out on these very popular lines. I am sorry we ran out earlier, there popularity caught me out again. Coreopsis are now in bud in a nice range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on a couple of the Agapanthus varieties. 

Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa with their first buds, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) were coming ready with bud appearing fast, but the hares have had all but two varieties for dinner!  The ever-popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too.  More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Gaura, Bidens and the Salvia’s too are now showing plenty of bud and now a bit of colour too. A nice illustration of the contrast in weather patterns over the past few weeks, is that Oxalis triangularis is back on the list and in bud, after we took it off due to some frost damage on the leaf edges, just a couple of weeks ago. We cut them back to compost and there now back on show again, looking grand. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering. A couple of fresh batches of Fire and Sunset are back on the list, full of promise. Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll. Many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Phlox paniculata varieties are showing bud on super strong stems, get them quick before they go. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and out of date

Hi. 

Here we are, the last of the Spring bank holidays is upon us, and the sun has come to welcome everyone into their gardens. Slightly frustrating that we move from vests and jackets to too much exposure over 24 hours, but a change from cold nights to a heatwave is where we are. Looks like it will calm down again in a week, but let’s hope the brief heatwave and holiday spirit will get everyone excited enough to loosen those purse strings over the next few days. We were hit this week with a combination of holidays and a lot of illness among the team, some more serious than others but all throwing a spanner in the works. Luckily the drivers all showed up so we still managed to get all the orders out before the end of the week which is always the main focus of a spring week. The biggest invalid was of course myself, hit with man-flu since last weekend, so everyone else suffers too. I’ve been dosing up on Lemsip and honey which has worked a treat in subduing the symptoms, I think the vintage state of the Lemsip added an extra kick as Caroline had me using up her parents old stock which had a use by date of 2020. Don’t care, it got me through. 

Electrician has been on-site all week again setting up a new distribution board and cabling for the replacement generator that is on order and tidying up the new charging station for the new EV van due in the next couple of weeks. The special automatic transfer switch which starts the generator in the event of a power cut was due to be ready for delivery in 2 or 3 days from ordering, it is now going to be 3 weeks. They saw me coming. Good news from the DVLA this week as they have announced that from June 1st 2026, you will no longer need to use a tachograph in an EV if the GVW is under 4.25 tonnes. Ours will be 4 tonnes, so that will save all the drivers having to get a ‘drivers card’ to put into the tacho recorder. Not quite sure how hauliers are expected to plan their investments in EV’s when these announcements are made at such short notice. There were very strong rumours that this was going to happen, but we weren’t sure quite when. We have been so lucky to order ours several weeks before the rush of orders that is likely to follow this change in the rules. There will still be a speed limiter, keeping the top speed to 57 mph, but that should reduce the temptation to go faster and keep efficiency up on the battery usage. 

We should have cleared most of the vital potting before the weekend, so that frees me up for another batch of seed sowing in the peace and quiet. Caroline should have been going to Wembley to watch Southampton on Saturday, but the embarrassing spy-gate scandal has put an end to all that. That is one PR exercise I’m glad I don’t have to deal with, the tarnish of cheating at such a high level  will be quite hard to remove.  Must go, I am under orders to get home 15 minutes ago so I can clean up before visiting relatives. What fun. 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. Coreopsis are now in bud in a nice range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on a couple of the Agapanthus varieties. Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa Butterfly Blue with their first buds, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) were coming ready with bud appearing fast, but the hares have had the lot for dinner!  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Bidens and the Salvia’s too are showing the odd bud although still a week or two away from colour I think. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering.  Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll. Many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy suprise

Hi.

I can’t believe another week has passed already and it’s halfway through May. Unfortunately, outside it still feels like March or early April at a push, we’ve had very cold winds, frosts, heavy showers of rain and more dramatically hail. Looks like it is going to warm up a bit over the next week and with a few showers to dampen the ground a bit more, we could be in for a good gardening session. Hopefully a boost in plant sales will benefit everyone, fingers crossed. Our drivers are still coming home which very positive responses from our delivery recipients, which is always great to hear. When the season isn’t quite as exciting as perhaps, we may have hoped, it is very easy to blame yourself for not doing a good enough job in growing and preparing the plants for sale, so some positive feedback is always nice to hear about.  

After last week’s panic about the phone system losing the plot, after another IT ‘upgrade’, everything has now settled down. It turned out to be a setup issue with the new network switch and not a problem with the phone box on the wall, so no phone system upgrade required just yet. Pete the electrician has been on-site most of the week setting up new 3 phase cabling and distribution boards for the van charging stations, A bigger job than I expected but what’s new there. Next week he is back to sort out the cabling and more gear for the new generator, which although I was told it might be delivered in a couple of weeks, won’t be here for at least another 5, possibly longer.  I’m really looking forward to getting all this electric stuff sorted and plugging in the new electric van. We are producing all this excess power at the moment, from the solar array and wind turbines, and we really need to be using it ourselves to get some decent value out of it. We only get 6p/kWhr for exporting it and if we used it ourselves, we would be saving 28p. What will be exciting, will be seeing some of our plants being delivered to our customers using our own generated energy, it feels like another big step in doing what we do as sustainably as we can. 

Had a surprise late on Sunday evening, with a call from the driver of the Dutch potting compost lorry. Could I let him know when we would be open in the morning and had I any idea where he could park up overnight?  Once he told me he was actually already outside the nursery gate, it was always going to be easier to deal with it straight away. Not the perfect Sunday evening, but it was good to get him in and unloaded while the place was quiet and he was very pleased to be on his way home 12 hrs earlier than he expected. It meant we could start the week with plenty of potting materials ready to go, as well as not having a big lorry messing about in the yard while we are trying to get started on picking and processing all the orders. 

We’ve had a good week on the production side of things, as there is plenty of tunnel space ready to fill, after a reasonable run of sales over the past few weeks. We set a potting team going on Tuesday for a bit and then full-on before Wednesday lunchtime while the rest of the team finished off all the orders. Running both teams at the same time is always a bit tense and very hand to mouth in its operation, but there is simply no substitute for running the potting machine for more hours to pot more stock. The later in the week you start the machine to less gets done.  Lovely fresh stock of wooden box parts arrived this week, only 7 months after ordering. It is just me, isn’t it?  Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast.  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Osteospermum Bidens and Lewisia. The Salvia’s too are showing the odd bud although still a week or two away from colour I think. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of Superbowl Mauve are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll! The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance.  

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and hectic

Hi. 

Just a quick one as I’m struggling to keep up this week. The orders have been rolling in after a better bank holiday weekend than predicted, and everything else seems to be kicking off, some exciting, but most of it very expensive. Preparations for the electric van continue with a couple of 3 phase 22kw chargers on order and the electrician running up a quote to install a new distribution board, cabling and sockets for those chargers. As part of the electric re-jig we are having to replace our ancient and unreliable generator with something a bit quieter, cleaner and cleverer. It is going to be installed on an existing concrete pad next to the meter shed, which seemed like a cheap and easy option, but by the time new wiring, auto transfer switches and new distribution boards are installed the cost of the generator is likely to double. It’s like a roller coaster I can’t seem to get off, one positive advance turns into a waterfall of extra costs.  To add to the positive financial mood of the day, our new IT people who successfully helped us update onto the cloud, have today upgraded our Wi-Fi hubs, firewall and network switch gear so that we are ‘more secure’, plug and play, it’s all so simple. Now the telephone system won’t work correctly (so if you can’t get through please try emailing us at nurseries@kirtonfarm.co.uk) and they say this nothing to do with them, but if we changed from our reasonably new box on the wall to an on-line system, it would all be better. Also, the CCTV system which they said would work better once everything was upgraded, has also been written off because it doesn’t fit with the new levels of firewall security and we would need to replace it if we wanted to be secure on the whole network. So it looks like we have to replace a perfectly good phone system and cctv (it is Chinese!) to fit in with the new level of cyber security. Yet another rollercoaster I got stuck on. 

I had a very interesting visit from one of our Dutch compost makers this week. After some poor results using loose fill peatfree propagation composts last summer, when compared to the peat-free glue plugs we have used for many years, I developed a little theory that the problem was the fine particles in the loose mixes moving into the air spaces when watered over a period. This doesn’t tend to happen in peat-based mixes due to the different physical properties of peat. In conversation today he confirmed that the glue plugs hold the finer particles in a solid structure so the blocking of the air spaces doesn’t happen, but my idea to ask the manufacturers to try and remove some of these finer particles would fall on deaf ears because it is just too much trouble to go to, for the relatively small UK peat-free propagation market. The coir propagation mix we are using now is much better than others we have tried but still has too much dust to make a perfect mix, but they won’t take it out. I suspect we will have to adjust our sowing strategy and move the slower germinating, more difficult lines, into glue plugs which would mean new seeding bars, dibbers and delivery tubes to fit onto the sowing machine. Looks like another rollercoaster to ride. On the positive side the weather is lovely and the birds are singing.

The solar is generating nicely again now the cable has been repaired, and tomorrow is the day to tilt our panels to their full summer setting of 17 degrees. They will stay there until August when they start to stand up again. Hopefully in a few weeks we can really start to make good use of all that solar generation when the electric van arrives, and we can soak up a big dollop of energy each day. Something must go in the right direction soon. We had a fab holiday weekend here when I managed to talk Caroline into potting Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so we got lots done. I think she is hoping for a rest this time, and she might be lucky as we look like running out of compost by the end of Friday and the next load isn’t due until Tuesday. I’m sure I can still think of a few things we can do together, that repaired solar cable still needs re-burying! 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast.  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of a couple of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be week or two before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy anniversary

Hi. 

That was a busy week leading up to the Bank Holiday weekend. Not the best week to be a van down and a driver too, but we made it through, assuming tomorrows trips all come together ok. Nasty combination of bright sun and a cold strong wind this week, it always seems to happen just as our beech trees and hedge come into fresh leaf and they get truly battered. At least our turbines have been having a good time, making up for the lack of solar output, ‘every cloud’ and all that. Managed to get the potting started again yesterday with another long session due tomorrow and I may be able to talk Caroline into another go on Saturday. With stock levels falling, we need to restock asap, but with labour costs now so high and margins so fine, weekend overtime is a luxury we can’t really afford anymore, so it’s down to us again to sneak a few more through the potting machine and get a bit extra on the ground growing away. 

Each week I think we are catching up with the waiting module stock in the prop tunnels, but then each week sees more deliveries and we are swamped again! It shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, it’s the same every year and after 42 years at it, you think I would learn.  That reminds me, thanks to mum and my sister-in-law for reminding us about the 42nd anniversary, nothing like a good prod to make yourself feel ancient! I celebrated by going dancing with lots of other ladies and Caroline went to see Southampton play Ipswich with her brother. A lovely night out for all. 

Big tick this week with our solar cable now repaired. It was a bigger job than expected, with the cable cutting, jointing and resealing taking most of two days and then the resin filled casing taking at least another couple of days to fully harden before we can rebury the repaired section. Thankfully, all tests were passed and the power switched on, so it is actually generating already, despite the open trenching. The next task was to get the SSE back in to replace the downgraded fuses in our mains supply box and upgrade the fuse size in the transformer on the other side of the field, so if it happens again we just blow the fuse here and not in the transformer. Phoned them up at about 3.30 today, they were here by 5.45 and all done within the hour. Power had to go off while they made the changes, but no major nursery disruption so that was a big bonus.  With the electrician on site, we managed to get him to help us set the mist propagation to work properly. He installed the controlling solenoid a while ago but the water supply needed sorting out before it would operate correctly and when we  completed that part, the computer wouldn’t talk to the solenoid. It was soon working perfectly, but we couldn’t have done it without him.  

Only 3 weeks until we take delivery of our first EV delivery van, so lots of planning to accommodate a very different type of vehicle. We are having to put in another charging point, in fact we will put in two as I suspect we will need another fairly soon. The grant available for charger installation has just increased to £500 per charger which will help cover some of the cost. We also must get all the drivers to apply for a DVLA drivers card so they can use the tachograph that comes in a 4 tonne van. We may only have to use it for a matter of weeks before the law changes and makes the tacho unnecessary, but no one seems to know for sure when the change will come, so best to be prepared. We will have to get an EV based fuel/charge card set up for off-site refuelling and the appropriate app installed for finding suitable charging stations. Then it will just be a matter of building the drivers confidence in using an all-electric van. A combination of coping with range anxiety and finding handy/quick charging stations will be the key to stress reduced deliveries, so watch out when you see it delivering to your site and be kind to the driver, who may be experiencing something new and not altogether enjoying it! 

To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The cold nights are holding things back slightly, plenty of stock just not a huge amount in bud at the moment.  Camassia Maybelle is the best one, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of a couple of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. Fresh batch of the pretty Leucanthemum Western Star Leo Yellow is ready with first buds showing on compact plants. The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing, but not many left. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast. The Scent First series are more compact and earlier to flower. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be 2 or 3 weeks before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy Spring

Hi. 

Usual high season stuff here, lots of orders and plenty of potting after a fresh delivery of an artic full of our peat-free potting compost. Vans continue to bring joy to the world, with another one taken off the road after it was discovered that the garage didn’t change the cam belt on the last service and now it was well overdue and grounded until replaced (should be completed tomorrow). Meanwhile one van managed to delaminate the tread from a rear wheel at speed on the motorway, although luckily it didn’t actually burst. I suspect the driver behind might have needed a change of underwear as rubber bits rained down from the skies, but all ended well with the wheel replaced on a slip road rather than on the hard shoulder. The garage said what an unusual tyre failure it was when they saw it, which is sort of reassuring in one way, or possibly, why does this happen to us? 

This week we lowered the solar panels to their 30 degree from horizontal position, to make the most of the higher sun sweep as we head for summer. Just one more tilt to go in a months time, down to 17 degrees for the rest of the summer. It almost seems like they are horizontal when they get this low, but it seems to produce the goods when the sun shines. It’s only 15 minutes work to move 15 banks of panels (120 in total), I’m surprised more people aren’t using this system as it produces more output especially in the winter when it is most useful and valuable. I must admit it hardly felt worth it this time, with the panels still off-line due to the cable issue we had last week, but it’s another job ticked off the list. We were expecting our electrician to come with a specially hired bit of kit that should be able to pinpoint where in the underground cable the break is, but the previous customer hadn’t returned it to the store, so we are delayed. Fingers crossed it makes an appearance tomorrow and we can get digging to find the fault and repair it. 

We have had some stunning sunrises and sunsets here over the week and the blossom on the trees is just beautiful. No hard frosts, hail or strong winds to damage it, you can almost see why spring is such a magical time for non-nursery folk! Hopefully today’s wind won’t have messed things up too much, we had a couple of small whirlwinds here today and one tunnel cover made a bid for freedom, but otherwise it is a classic cool and bright spring day. Secretly I’m hoping this will release the purse strings in the plant areas around the land, but at the same time we will still find time to lift out heads and marvel at Mother Nature. We have quite an exciting visitor at the moment with a Greater Whitethroat in a little scrubby corner of our garden. To be fair most of the garden is scrubby or ‘put down to natural habitats’. Caroline first heard and identified it using the ‘Merlin’ app, which is great at picking out bird calls. It was calling from the field hedge just downhill from the turbines and flying up to feed. A couple of days later and it is now a bit closer, let’s hope it finds a mate and we have some youngsters later in the season. For some reason an oddity in the garden seems more exciting than the regulars, which is most unfair. On return from holiday someone was telling me how pretty a certain seabird was while they watched it through binoculars in the Southern Atlantic. While trying to sound impressed I was thinking you could be just as impressed if you took the time to watch a sparrow or a flock of long tailed tits on the bird feeder with binoculars. The feather patterns of many birds are just amazing when examined close up, just give yourself time sometimes, to stop and really look. Says the man with his nose permanently stuck to a nursery grindstone! 

Social media on trend! Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The cold nights are holding things back slightly, plenty of stock just not a huge amount in bud at the moment.  Camassia are all now active, showing strong chunky buds. The blue Maybelle is the best, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of several varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring, it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be 2 or 3 weeks before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and electric

Hi. 

Just how much fun can we fit into one week?

After the terminal diagnosis on our oldest van last week, this week started positively with an order placed and deposit paid, for a new Renault electric delivery van from Maxi-Mover. A low loader box van with a loading ramp, very much like our existing 3.5T van fleet, but with a GVW of 4 tonnes rather than 3.5. New rules mean that we can still drive it on a standard drivers license and later this year we won’t need to use the tachograph either. There will still be a speed limiter involved, but that should help with energy efficiency and reduce potential speeding tickets, even if it may frustrate some drivers! With a workable 200 mile range per full charge, we should be able to deliver over a decent area while keeping costs in check. With all the excess power we are generating here, the first 200 miles each day will be very cheap, although any extra mileage on top of that will not be. I suspect there will be a bit of range and charging anxiety among the drivers initially, but we will get them to test plenty of fast charging points around our normal delivery routes, so they get used to where is easiest to charge up. They only need to stop for a few minutes to test them out and we will only need enough fast charging to get back to base each day, so we can maximise the use of our cheaper power. Hopefully they will quickly pick up confidence in its use. The way diesel costs are now it might not be too long before we need another. Delivery before the end of May with luck. 

So, having bought an electric van on Monday what is bound to happen on Tuesday? The nursery electric system throws its toys out of the pram. 3.30pm a lorry arrives and turns in the yard, at the same time our 20T hydraulic press we use for punching out labels starts to smell and then smoke. It wasn’t running, but I unplugged it anyway, assuming the motor had just burnt out. Bit cross about that but started the process of contacting the supplier for help. Next morning we noticed that parts of the nursery were without power. Checked the meter shed for tripped circuits etc, all ok, but did spot that one of the phase lights on the main incoming power SSE fuse box was out. Phoned our electrician, yes, this is a big problem, turn everything off and call SSE to report a grid fault. Barely had we put the phone down when the first of four repair vans turn up to help us out. They quickly identified that a fuse had blown on our transformer on the other side of the field, so they popped over there to put in a fresh one. On returning to the nursery we were asked to turn all our circuits back on, all went well until the solar went on and that instantly blew the fuse again Ooops. After several more tests, with the power going on and off and more fuses replaced, over most of the morning, it was confirmed that the solar was faulty. Naturally I assumed there was something wrong with the solar control gear, but was advised to call in our local electrician to do a few more tests before calling in the solar installers. Good job we did as he found that the fault was in our massive 200m underground cable that runs from the panels to the shed. Somehow it has been damaged, but we have no idea where. Suspecting the lorry turning in the yard may have done something we got in the farm JCB to dig up the cable in the yard to see if there was any obvious damage. Not a mark on it, so now the electrician is hiring a bit of very expensive kit that should be able to tell the distance down the cable where the problem is, so we can dig in the right spot and hopefully repair the cable. So, no solar output now and no battery back up either, until all is resolved. One bit of good news was the hydraulic press was checked over and was fine again once all 3 phases were working at the correct voltage. 

First swallows spotted on the nursery last weekend and another sighting today, now that is a real reason for joy and hope. 

Social media on trend! Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Summer is on the way with our first batch of one of our best sellers Nemesia Wisley Vanilla now listed.  We also have a few early Salvia Embers Wish and Kisses and Wishes (Love & Wishes too follow soon), but do beware that they are not fully hardy and can be damaged by frost. A few hardy Geraniums are starting some flower activity. Sabini Blue is a superb blue, and the dark purple flowered phaeum Samabor are shooting flower stems nicely above it’s dark blotched leaves. We have some lovely bushy Geranium nodosum with bud too, it’s pretty if not a showstopper, but it makes fabulous groundcover especially in shady positions. Camassia are all now active, showing strong chunky buds. The blue Maybelle is the best, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just opening. Not many left. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left, but the follow-on batches of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. D

Hairy confusion

Hi. 

I just can’t work out what day it is. No one seems to be at work when we need something, and all the days seem to have rolled into one very long weekend for lots of folk. Fingers crossed some of them will have been buying plants out there in consumer-land. I hope your Easter was eggciting enough and met all expectations. The best combination of just enough chocolate and just enough relatives! Our Easter was the usual nursery fayre with a gang in on Friday to catch up on the potting and another in on Monday to start the weeks order preparation. 

In between times, Saturday was rewardingly spent making a module extractor to fit our new reusable module trays we bought and used last year. The tray manufacturer missed a trick in that they were unable to supply a made to measure extractor and last summer we had to push them out one at a time when it came to potting time. Naturally none of our existing ones fitted the new tray and the precision needed to make one ourselves was a bit off putting. There was one existing tray however which very nearly fitted the pattern of holes required, and I correctly assessed that by cutting it in half and remounting it, to effectively make it fractionally longer, I could make it functionable. It kind of worked, all the pegs matched up to the tray holes as planned, but on testing I discovered that the pegs were fatter at the bottom which meant they then wedged the extractor into the tray when pushed down so it wouldn’t come out again. My half hour job turned into an allday affair, as I hacksawed and filed each of 128 plastic pegs into a narrower profile, it just had to be done. I have to say, the results are fantastic with the modules popping out so quickly and easily now, so it really was worth the effort.  Having not learnt my lesson, I was encouraged enough to make another to fit our 288-cell tray. This had to be done from scratch, so it was a matter of marking out a board with very precise positions for 288 holes and then testing hole sizes and different pegs to see what would work. Every hole must be just right, vertical and in exactly the right spot, one hole out of line and you have to start again!   Did a load of testing, selected my drill size to get a tight peg fit and off we go. First mistake was that my drill test was in a piece of relatively soft wood and the board is harder plywood. having drilled a third of the holes with a 6mm drill I tried to fit a peg and found it had to be 7mm. So, what is one of the least common drill sizes to come in mixed drill selections, you’ve guessed it. Of the hundreds of drills on the nursery, in the office toolkit and the house I found just one.   Two thirds of the way through the 288 holes I moved the board and barely touched the drill bit, but it still snapped. All play ceased, and I went home to eat some chocolate. It was Easter after all. 

Sunday was super productive with a massive seed sowing session, a load of fresh herbs for later this season and a pile of perennials for next year. I’m really getting the hang of the seed sowing machinery we installed last year, and I was also able to sow it in the newly delivered ‘ace-conker’ seed sowing compost. The mice seemed to have left them alone so far, traps are set in readiness, but they have been doing a lot of destructive nibbling already this spring which has been very frustrating. Hoping to see a sea of green seedlings in 2 or 3 weeks, rather than last years patchy results in the various peat-free sowing composts trialled. Live and learn, although it does sometimes feel I may run out of time to learn enough. 

Social media on trend! I am hearing that our rekindled Instagram account is now reassuringly active. There are new images and the odd video being posted each week showing some of the current gems out there on the nursery. Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

We don’t have many, as it was a bit of a trial, but Catananche Alba are beginning to produce flower shoots. Most of the Alliums are showing early bud, but you will need to be quick while the foliage still looks ok. It’s fab in the border but can be a bit of a menace in a pot! Summer is on the way with a few of the hardy Geraniums starting some flower activity. Sabini Blue is a superb blue, and the two dark purple flowered phaeum types, Raven and Samabor are shooting flower stems nicely with Samabor showing it’s dark blotched leaves well.  Camassia are all now beginning to bud showing strong chunky buds. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just opening. Just a few of the Polemonium Bressingham Purple left, with even darker foliage and now the odd bud too. Erysimum varieties are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left in the first batches but more to follow later. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The candelabra primula Primula japonica Millers Crimson are showing the first signs of bud, tucked into the chunky foliage. The first thing the Pulsatilla does is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come, Only the red form left now. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy Easter

Hi. 

Oh, the joys of Spring! Bit of a dip in the weather, although it is lovely out there at the moment. The birds are singing, the lambs bleating, trollies are filled and the vans are dying. Just what we needed in a hectic four day week, one van garaged for three days rather than one, while waiting for parts, and our oldest one biting the dust on the motorway on the way to do the days deliveries.  On the plus side we negotiated the annual insurance package for the business and all the vehicles just two weeks ago, and already we have redesigned the front bumper of a parked car in London, oops and had a motorway recovery truck out to rescue us and get us home. The motorway recovery was impressively quick, which did help us reschedule things reasonably efficiently on the day, so we were able to get a couple of local trips completed in the afternoon. News on the recovered van isn’t promising, with an initial diagnosis of probable terminal damage to the engine. Something to do with the timing chain and camshaft. They are sending us some options once they have costed a few things out, which I don’t like the sound of.  

We are lucky in some ways in that our Easter mayhem has now more or less passed, while yours is yet to happen. I hope it all goes well and the weather is kind to you all. I’m glad I’m not in Scotland this weekend, it looks a bit wild up there over Saturday and Sunday. With luck we will be ok further south, a nice breeze to get the turbines rotating and some sunshine to wake up the solar arrays each morning.  

We have a small crew in on Good Friday to catch up on the potting which has somehow gone from being well under control to not. With luck that will all be fairly relaxed, with hopefully not too many interruptions, and I believe there is to be a chocolate egg and hot cross bun delivery to smooth the way.

 We won’t be delivering any plants on Bank Holiday Monday but we will be here getting stock ready for Tuesday deliveries and hopefully we will then be able to get through all remaining deliveries by the end of play on Friday. I have an extra hire van in next week to cover the current shortage of wheels, but if things do go crazy we may have to do the odd delivery early on Saturday. Fingers crossed all goes ok. 

My Easter has come very nicely together today with a delivery of fresh seed of about 100 varieties, some of which we are trying for the first time, and to complete the weekend, the 6 pallets of super-duper peat-free seed sowing compost I ordered just a few days ago also arrived, despite an original delivery estimate of at least 4 weeks. This mix worked so well compared with all the other mixes I tried last year, I am looking forward to a couple of days of intense sowing with the confidence that if we can keep the mice at bay, we will get some great results. 

More high-tech stuff installed this week with all nursery vehicles now fitted with a combined tracker and camera. The images are sent straight to the cloud so are always available should we need to recover footage in the event of a dispute and we can even live stream video so we can see the road ahead of the vehicle. We have had standard trackers for a couple of years now and find them very useful. It is reassuring to be able to pinpoint where all the vans are what the traffic is like ahead of them on their route and warn them if there are jams coming up. We have been able to redirect drivers if they have got lost or just can’t quite find the customer site and we can tell when they will get back to base and then adapt our plans appropriately without having to interrupt their driving. All visible from our desktop displays or mobile phones, it is so handy. 

Social media on trend! I am hearing that our rekindled Instagram account is now reassuringly active. There are new images and the odd video being posted each week showing some of the current gems out there on the nursery. Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The very popular Anemone blanda have sprung into action but only White Splendour is still currently available. Most of the Alliums are showing early bud, but you will need to be quick while the foliage still looks ok. It’s fab in the border but can be a bit of a menace in a pot! Camassia are all now beginning to bud showing strong chunky buds. A herald of springtime is Brunnera, the lovely blue perennial Forget me Not. Just the green leaved form left now, and they have early flower bud hovering among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. All of the Ipheion varieties now have buds and a bit of colour. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems.  Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and showing colour with more on the way. Erysimum varieties are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left in the first batches but more to follow later. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The first thing the Pulsatilla does is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come, Only the red form left now. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy Easter prep

Hi.

Weather was not quite as sweet this week, but it looks like picking up again as we move towards Easter. Sales in the sunnier conditions went a bit nuts, we only had one busier week last year, so it was all hands to the pumps. With one day to go it looks like all the orders should get to their destinations ok and fingers crossed next week works out ok too. As you may have noticed it’s pre-Easter week next week and likely to be super busy again. With luck we have got a few sites already sorted, but if the weekend sales are buoyant, we will be pushed very hard. We will try our best to get all orders delivered before Good Friday, but we are very likely to have to make a few drops on the Friday. There just aren’t enough vans, drivers, trolleys and hours to guarantee getting it done without that last day in the week. Most retail sites are closed on Easter Sunday so it’s not quite as manic as the old days, when it was often a bonanza weekend. I can remember making the odd Bank Holiday Monday emergency delivery to local centres who had sold out on Easter Sunday. Those where the days, plenty of youthful enthusiastic energy, whatever happened to all that bounce and excitement? 

The week after is another short week too, but hopefully it works a little better, because we will be on the nursery on the Bank Holiday Monday doing some order preparations ready to leave through the gate early on the Tuesday. With a potting team in on the Good Friday, trying to get stock back on the beds, it’s going to be a nice relaxing time over the next couple of weeks. They tell me this is a lifestyle choice! We are desperately hoping the war in the far east doesn’t mess things up for too long, fuel costs are going crazy and it is making some people a bit jumpy about it’s affect on the economy. It has certainly messed up our pensions, so no retirement for a while yet. I have just ordered 6 pallets of special peat-free seed sowing compost from Holland this week, after testing out multiple mixes in our rigid refillable module trays over the last 15 months. Despite multiple attempts to get the mix right we have had to pick the best of the bunch tried so far, which I reckon is 90% right, and naturally it is the most expensive mix on offer and only available as a minimum 6 pallet order. The specialist producer does say that it is absolutely the best mix available for seed sowing and used by a big European young plant grower. It works out at 10 Euros per 45li bag, which I suspect is more than many of you are retailing your mixes at. 30% of that cost is the transport to get it here, such is the rise in fuel costs. To be fair it did outperform all the other professional mixes by a country mile, so it should be worth it.  

Another import arriving soon is our next container of pots. Coming all the way from Sri-Lanka it can be a bit of a lottery as to if and when the next one will arrive. Luckily this one seems to have skirted around the sea transport troubles and got through as planned, just about on schedule. I have yet to see the transport bill but hopefully they filled up before the fuel rises. The pots are obviously hugely ‘mission critical’ to a Hairy Pot Plant Company, so we do hold onto quite a stockpile of pots, just in case, in fact there is nearly a whole barn full of boxes. It dents the cashflow, but we would be stuffed without them. 

Social media update The new young folk here have rekindled our Instagram account which we dallied with during the Covid era. Apparently, it has been ticking along quietly without any input from my end, but now there are new images being posted each week showing some of the current goodies out there on the nursery. There may possibly be a few other nuggets on there too, so take a peek and see what is going on. To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The very popular Anemone blanda have sprung into action. Plenty of fresh growth, bud and flower with Blue shades and White Splendour currently available. Most of the Alliums are showing early bud, but you will need to be quick while the foliage still looks ok. It’s fab in the border but can be a bit of a menace in a pot! A herald of springtime is Brunnera, the lovely blue perennial Forget me Not. Just the green leaved form left now, and they have early flower bud hovering among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. All of the Ipheion varieties now have buds and a bit of colour. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems.  Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and showing colour with more on the way. Camassia are all now beginning to bud showing strong chunky buds. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The first thing the Pulsatilla does in the spring is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come. And finally, the first Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy planning

Hi. 

How great to see the sun again, the roads have dried out and plant sales seem to have taken off. We’ve had a very busy week on the delivery front, with several repeat orders, when one delivery in the week simply wasn’t enough! Although we love our orders to be placed early, if you get desperate, we will always try and fit in a few late ones if we can. There is sometimes spare space on a van or even a spare van at the end of the week, so it is always worth asking. No promises, but you never know. Having said that the next 2 or 3 weeks are likely to be very busy indeed, with the run up to Easter, the magic golden orb appearing in the sky, and two four day weeks are all going to make it a fun time for all. Good luck with that! 

Lots more stock is appearing from our own prop department and plenty of young plant deliveries have come in this week. The improvement in growth and health of the incoming stock is quite noticeable with the longer day length and increase in sunshine really perking thing up. It actually feels like spring has arrived.  Cue the snow. 

I’m trying not to look too hard at the main news as the troubles in the Middle East start to cause energy hassles. When margins are so tight, big increases in fuel costs for transport and heating are not what you want to hear. We had two heating oil tanks filled this week, both were running low, I dare not look at the price. I would have loved to be all electric by now, but the investment cost to do everything is just too high and the payback period too long for someone of my ‘experience’. Don’t tell Caroline but I have started making electric van enquiries again. This is one investment I’m sure would pay back pretty quickly due to our position as a net exporter of power. The rules on tacho and driving hours etc are due to be relaxed for electric vans, possibly in June, so I am asking our low-loader van manufacturer what the timescale might be for delivery of a 4.25t van rather than their current 3.5t model. Although the cost is a little higher than diesel there is some financial help towards it and with plenty of cheap electricity being generated here it could be a way of mitigating the other fuel rises. It might be a challenge managing the recharging during the day for the longer trips, but we only need to charge enough to get home. Hopefully it will work ok, without costing us too much at the fast-charging stations. 69p/kw against 6p does tilt the viability! 

We are really pleased with the addition of the capillary matting into our boxes, it seems to be doing what we wanted and is proving reasonably efficient in the way we reuse them. I hadn’t really worked out the finer details of how we would actually manage the box cleaning and reuse of the mats, but the cleaning is easy and the mats simply go straight back into the clean boxes being used for the next order. Very quick reuse and we are not ripping through the stock of new mats too quickly.  What marvellous management that must be, to plan a new innovation so sensibly! Makeitupasyougo.com. 

Social media update 

Ok, hands up, this isn’t my scene, but the new young folk here have rekindled our Instagram account which we dallied with during the Covid era. Apparently, it has been ticking along quietly without any input from my end, but now there are new images being posted each week showing some of the current goodies out there on the nursery. There may possibly be a few other nuggets on there too, so take a peek during coffee break and see what is going on. To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The very popular Anemone blanda are springing into action. Plenty of fresh growth, bud and flower with Blue shades and White Splendour currently available. A herald of springtime is Brunnera, the lovely blue perennial Forget me Not. Just the green leaved form left now, and they have early flower bud hovering among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. We have rattled through a big batch of the delightful Snakes Head Lily (Fritillaria). Buds from the off and looking great. Muscari Blue Magic are also showing colour. All of the Ipheion varieties now have buds and a bit of colour. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems.  Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and showing colour with more on the way. Camassia are beginning to bud already with the Caerulea form showing strong chunky buds which are often multiple. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour, they stood up to the last frosts very well so are be plenty tough enough for outside life despite it still only being mid March. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. Don’t tell everyone, but we have a few Erythronium ready. They tend to be on and off the list in a flash as we don’t grow a huge number, they are just too fickle and have quite a short but spectacular window if they are in the right place. The first thing the Pulsatilla does in the spring is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come. A few of the winter flowering Helleborus have colour or bud showing. And finally, the first Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy cakes

Hi

I am told the weather is about to improve. Hold on to that thought and don’t risk running too low on stock! The drains here tonight are overflowing again and the turbines are bowling along, so it has plenty of room to get better. Things continue to move along with a flurry of activity around providing Mothering Sunday colour this weekend and everyone getting ready for the spring onslaught of plant hungry gardeners. 

All the vans have been out for a run and so far, all have come home.  One of the unseen costs of going peat-free came home to roost this week, with the replacement of the lift chains on the potting machine. At just two years old, the heavy chains that pull through the potting compost to create a fall of media filling the empty pots passing underneath, had had enough. There are chain tensioner adjustments we make over the seasons as the chain wears and lengthens, which probably allows for a ‘stretching’ capacity of about 8 inches. But it had all been used up. In the old days a chain would last 7 or 8 years but the tougher ingredients in peat-free mixes causes must faster wear, I’m also not quite so sure the chains are as tough as they were. Anyway, a new chain arrived, the machine partially dismantled, lift bars removed, and all put back together again over several hours. A good job to get out of the way before we get too busy and the machine now runs so much more quietly, very satisfying if a touch expensive. 

Cakes all round this week with another birthday, me this time, it comes round so fast. I found plenty of exciting things to do on the day, with seeds to sow and labels to print. The senior moments continue to mount, while sowing the seed I emptied the last of the seed into my palm to sow into the last few cells of the tray, felt the urge to find out the time, checked my watch and spilt the lot down my front. Merriment continued into the evening as I get in free to my Jive dancing session if it’s my birthday, although it is traditional to bring cake or sweets for all the other dancers (50-60 people), so not quite such a bonus. I opted for a healthier option this time and brought a flowering Hairy Pot Plant for each attendee instead, which we advertised in advance to ensure a good turnout on the night. It worked a treat and I was a very popular chap, my legs were shaking by the end of the night and that’s just what you want on your birthday night. 

Social media update Ok, hands up, this isn’t my area of expertise, in fact I no longer really have any of those anyway. The new young folk here have rekindled our Instagram account which we dallied with during the Covid era. Apparently, it has been ticking along quietly without any input from my end, but now there are new images being posted each week showing some of the current goodies out there on the nursery. There may possibly be a few other nuggets on there too, so take a peek during coffee break and see what a foot. Yes, I know it’s the hairy bit on the end of your leg, or is that just me? To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Do your 2026 retail prices need changing? 

If you are still to get started on this year’s hairy pot sales don’t forget to have a think about your retail prices and let us know if you want to adjust them. 

Availability list. 

It must be spring, the Dicentra spectabilis have shot out of the ground, both colours instantly showing flower buds. Another herald of springtime is Brunnera. both the green leaved and variegated varieties have early flower bud among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. We have a big batch of the delightful Snakes Head Lily (Fritillaria) just beginning to do its spring thing. Buds from the off. The very popular Anemone blanda are springing into action. Plenty of fresh growth, bud and flower. The deep blue Scilla sibirica are showing bud and a good colour and Muscari Blue Magic are also showing colour. Two of the Ipheion have their first buds appearing. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems they are simply lovely. Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and starting to show colour. Camassia are beginning to bud already and the last of our Tulip Trautmansdorf have fat buds. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour, they stood up to the last frosts very well so should be plenty tough enough for outside life despite it still only being early March. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. Don’t tell everyone, but we have a few Erythronium ready. They tend to be on and off the list in a flash as we don’t grow a huge number, they are just too fickle and have quite a short but spectacular window if they are in the right place. The first thing the Pulsatilla does in the spring is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come. A few of the winter flowering Helleborus have colour or bud showing. And finally, the first Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy gossip

Hi. 

What a treat to see so much sunshine, it has been glorious down here. Way too much flesh has been tempted into the fresh air, along with a few regrets when some mornings turned out to be a bit nippier than anticipated! I had forgotten what dry roads looked like, along with the added benefit that we can now see all the potholes so much more easily.  Sales this week jumped reassuringly as gardeners made a reappearance in the plant sales areas, I suspect there may be a lot of pent-up plant purchasing out there, let’s hope it spills out and hangs around for many weeks to come.  We’ve had a few of our seasonal staff returning this week which always adds some exciting social interactions, with everyone catching up on all the latest nursery developments and gossip. We were actually busy enough to have all 5 vans out on Thursday, quite an achievement when at the beginning of the week we only had two drivers and three vans operational. A few minor servicing and repair jobs were completed on the vehicles and drivers, and, touch wood, we are ready to go full steam next week. 

Plenty of potting already underway with the first young plants in modules finding their way into some lovely fresh peat-free compost. The first 80 cubic meter load arrived from the factory in Holland late on Sunday evening and unloaded ready for potting machine loading first thing on Monday. We never know quite when they are going to deliver, we generally get a call from the driver as he is either getting on or off the ferry which gives us a few hours to get ready. I know we could tell him to park-up somewhere and wait until Monday morning but then he would be in the way when everyone is buzzing around picking up the orders, so much better to get him sorted and out of the way. It keeps the driver happy and his tacho hours manageable and efficient, which hopefully will keep costs down for us in the future. 

Having said that it is bound to go up if fuel costs are messed up by the troubles in the Middle East, best not think about that. I am still itching to invest in an electric delivery van and the news looks promising. There are now very strong indications that this summer the rules will be relaxed around van weights and driving rules for EV delivery vans. You can already drive a van up to 4.25t with a standard driving license, if it is electric, but it still needs a speed limiter, tacho (which restricts driving times) and tighter MOT restrictions. A slightly higher weight allowance compensates for the extra battery weight and allows us to still carry an economic payload. Fingers crossed it all goes through parliament ok, but I’m not counting my chickens just yet.  

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026 

We are introducing three changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. To help provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are going to be 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. Do your 2026 retail prices need changing? If you are still to get started on this year’s hairy pot sales don’t forget to have a think about your retail prices and let us know if you want to adjust them. 

Availability list. 

The warmth in the air and now some sunshine, is pushing on the early plant growth. It must be spring, the Dicentra spectabilis have shot out of the ground, both colours instantly showing flower buds. Another herald of springtime is Brunnera. both the green leaved and variegated varieties have early flower bud among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. We have a big batch of the delightful Snakes Head Lily (Fritillaria) just beginning to do its spring thing. Buds from the off. The early spring bulbs are showing well with most of the Narcissus now in bud and colour, Don’t hang about, not a lot left. The deep blue Scilla sibirica are showing bud and a good colour and Muscari Blue Magic are now up and in tight bud. Two of the Ipheion have their first buds appearing. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems they are simply lovely. Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and starting to show colour. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour, they stood up to the last frosts very well so should be plenty tough enough for outside life despite it still only being early March. Wild primrose (P. vulgaris) and Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The first thing the Pulsatilla does in the spring is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come. A few of the winter flowering Helleborus have colour or bud showing. Cyclamen coum Silver-leaved are flowering and will flower from November through to March and April.  

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.  

Hairy developments

Hi. 

Warmth is spreading and the plants love it with growth on some looking quite vigorous for February. Looks disappointingly damp over the coming weekend but you never know, any dry spells should ignite those spring yearnings to loosen the gardening purse strings. Our bank balance is certainly looking forward to a bit of relief after the buildup of winter pressures! We have some pretty exciting, and for us a little scary, news to share. We have just taken on a young couple (Rachel and Josh) to assist the ancient folk who pretend to oversee the production and sale all this hairy pot stuff. After years of various wise owls asking us about our future plans and eventual slowing down, we were recently approached by a dynamic couple interested in working and learning the management side of our little enterprise. Both have nursery and management experience, are very bright, enthusiastic and annoyingly young. They started last week and already we are seeing some changes as they introduce us to the wonders of modern computing communications and new efficiencies. It’s going to be a very steep learning curve on both sides but so far so good. There will probably be a few subtle email address and admin changes coming up, but in theory everything should be more or less the same, just better! There may be some social media activity coming up too, but I don’t really understand that bit yet. In theory it should be useful and relevant to commercial buyers rather than anything directed to the retail consumer. I’m a bit anxious about TikTok, I’m not sure my dance moves will sell many plants. We will see. 

Nature has started up spring activity here in earnest, last Thursday evening I stepped out of the office to a chorus of frogs doing their thing in the main nursery pond. How they all seem to know which night to turn up on I haven’t a clue. A burst of activity over 3 or 4 nights and it’s all over, just leaving a heap of spawn behind, ready to repopulate the tunnels though the summer. Then there are the bats at dusk, flying up and down the hedges, one by the nursery gate, one up by the donkey paddock and another round the house, it’s all go. The dawn chorus has been building, but it was one late evening that I heard the loudest shouting match. Two song thrushes we going at it hammer and tong, with the volume set to 11.  My weekend seed sowing was interrupted by a nesting robin who had chosen my black crate tower as home. I tie crates together to create a loading platform so I can rest the bag on top and tip the seed compost ingredients into the concrete mixer. They picked the same tower last year, so I was confident enough to keep using it as I know they go straight back to it as soon as my back is turned. They managed two broods last year, but starting this early they could be on for more. Gregs rainwater sump clearance went really well last week, huge amounts of sludge were cleared from the bottom, and the pump and filter are now running with relatively clear water. Just need to stop the field above us washing down the hill in heavy rain and we would be in a much better place. Might have to start some farm negotiations. 

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026 

We are introducing three changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. To help provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are going to be 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. 

Do your 2026 retail prices need changing? If you are still to get started on this year’s hairy pot sales don’t forget to have a think about your retail prices and let us know if you want to adjust them. 

Availability list. 

The warmth in the air is pushing on the early plant growth, even if the sun is still a bit shy. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. We have a big batch of the delightful Snakes Head Lily (Fritillaria) just beginning to do its spring thing. Buds from the off. The early spring bulbs are showing well with most of the Narcissus now in bud and colour, Don’t hang about, not a lot left. The deep blue Scilla sibirica are showing bud and a good colour and Muscari Blue Magic are now up and in tight bud. Pulmonaria varieties are in bud, not far from showing colour. We don’t have much Blue Ensign left but plenty of the others. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour, they stood up to the last frosts very well so should be plenty tough enough for outside life despite it still only being early March. Wild primrose (Primula vulgaris) and Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The first thing the Pulsatilla does in the spring is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come. A few of the winter flowering Helleborus have colour or bud showing. Cyclamen coum Silver-leaved are flowering and will flower from November through to March and April.  

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and out of kilter

Hi

One day of sunshine and back to filling our rainwater sumps! Popped out this afternoon and there  is water everywhere in the fields, on the roads it is very wet out there. The silk screen printer has been rolled out this week after we got quite close to running out of fresh wooden POS  boards. We had the wood all precut  for us and then we prepared it for printing, with all the edges bevelled and corners rounded. 600 prints later all the big boards are done,  just the smaller sets and latex allergen notices to do over the next couple of days and we are ready  for another year. It’s not a job I relish as it is fraught with anxiety, when it goes well it’s fine, but when something goes slightly out of kilter the consequences are extremely messy. The very black, very permanent and slow drying ink is great  when it’s in the right place, but as soon as a little bit makes a break  for it, you are in trouble, It seems to take on a life of it’s own once  it escapes, turning up in all the places you don’t want it, just the tiniest smear repeats itself on everything you touch, and I mean everything!

More excitement in the office as our recent IT upgrade continued to throw up more and more challenges. Just as we think we are on top of it something else refuses to work, but at least we are more secure now. We are now at the end of the week and have  definitely made progress in some directions but there  is some trepidation that our favourite programs including the main nursery production and order processing program may be reaching toward the end of its life. I am hoping we can sort it out but it’s not going to be very easy. The frustrating thing is that it is working fine on two units but not on two others Luckily someone far cleverer and,  of course, younger than me is on the case.

Because we like a challenge, we have  also been looking at changing the accounts software and there  was a long teams chat about  that earlier today. Things have  moved  on a bit since we last looked at this sort of program but after huge  price increases from our previous supplier it is time for a shakeup. The hype on what could be possible with the new programmes is impressive and it all looks so simple. What could possibly go wrong?

I have  a treat for Greg tomorrow. Providing it is not raining too hard, he is descending into the near  empty rainwater sump to have  a spring clean. Long term  accumulation of silt in the bottom is getting into the submersed pump and blocking the sand filter and we are hoping a clear out will reduce drastically the amount of silt around the pump inlets. A portable ‘dirty water’ pump has been purchased to empty out the last of the mucky water and hopefully a quick scrape and flush will improve things. Fingers crossed it works and we remember to let him out at the end of the day!

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three  changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once  they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. To help provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are going to be 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. Do your 2026 retail prices need changing?

We have  increased our cost prices for 2026 by just 5p per pot, which is a little under  2%, to partially cover our ever-increasing costs. If you have  your stock pre-priced by ourselves, perhaps now would be a good time to let us know any changes you would like to make  for the coming season. We can then adjust our records accordingly and get started on printing the correct  price labels in advance of the fast-approaching madness of those spring sales.

Availability list.

Despite the very dull weather there  has been a surprising amount of growth over the last few of weeks in both the perennial and herb ranges, things are beginning to look quite Spring-like. The early spring bulbs are showing well with many of the Narcissus now in bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon-yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers.

There  are two Scilla showing bud and a good colour and Muscari Blue Magic are now up and in tight bud. The first of our naturalising Tulips is in bud, but don’t hang  about  I don’t have  a huge  number left. Pulmonaria varieties are in bud, not far from showing colour. We don’t have  much Blue Ensign left but plenty of the others. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour and stood up well after several hard frosts we saw a few of weeks ago.

Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great,  bushy tight bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. Cyclamen coum Silver-leaved are flowering and will flower from November through to March and April.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy coordination

Hi 

At last, the sun has made a showing today and Saturday looks promising too. This dull wet weather has affected a few plants, but most are now coming into spring growth with surprising enthusiasm. A little bit more brightness would be perfect but it looks like we are to return to topping up the groundwater levels again over the coming week, but at least it does help recover from last summer’s water shortages.

This week saw the first young plant stock arriving ready  for potting, so it really must be Spring. The potting machine has had its post-winter check-over and its chains tightened, and the tunnels are being prepared for their new inhabitants Over the past ten years or so we have  been gradually upgrading the site with what seems like miles of hand  dug and filled drains beside every tunnel on a mission to try and collect as much rainwater as we can,  to utilise in the irrigating of our crops. Over the winter, 3 years ago,  we had installed a collection of large interconnecting drains and sumps, together with pumps, a lot of pipework and cabling and a new large storage tank, all at huge expense. It has all been in use sporadically since then but has so far never  been the fully automated solution promised at the start. A series of issues kept tripping us up, incorrectly wired pump controls resulted in uncontrolled pump use on the auto settings, a faulty float switch which refused to stop the pump when running dry, silty water in the second ‘clean’ sump meant installing a large sand filter, a backflow of water in the main supply pipe from the tank to the sump needed a very large non-return valve inserting and then we eventually found an poorly fitted pipe connection 3 ft underground. This underground leak created the biggest mystery as we couldn’t understand why the storage tank was never  quite filling up despite the copious rainfall. What happened was, the sump pump would come  on, fill up the now empty large bore pipe work, and then turn off again before putting anything much into the tank. The pipe would then drain out again through  the leak before the pump turned  back on, and so the cycle would repeat. To add to the confusion the delivery pipe into the storage tank included a pipe that ran a third of the way down the inside of the tank, which would effectively syphon out all the water it could reach. Anyway, this week,  after a very long process, we have  achieved the initial aim of the project and the whole system now works as it should. Both pumps work together in a coordinated and automated fashion, so whenever we have  rainwater available in the sumps it gets pumped into the storage tank, and that water gets fed into the main irrigation tank, taking priority over the normal water supply. Result.  So now the system is working efficiently, the next fun job is to maximise the amount of run-off water we can capture and get flowing into the sumps. I have  a few ideas and fingers crossed they shouldn’t be expensive. Famous last words!

Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026

We are introducing three  changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once  they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. To help provide a longer lasting 'looking good' shelf life we are going to be 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. Do your 2026 retail prices need changing?

We have  increased our cost prices for 2026 by just 5p per pot, which is a little under  2%, to partially cover our ever-

increasing costs. If you have  your stock pre-priced by ourselves, perhaps now would be a good time to let us know any changes you would like to make  for the coming season. We can then adjust our records accordingly and get started on printing the correct  price labels in advance of the fast-approaching madness of those spring sales.

Availability list.

Despite the very dull weather there  has been a surprising amount of growth over the last couple of weeks in both the perennial and herb ranges, things are beginning to look quite Spring-like.

The early spring bulbs are showing well with many of the Narcissus are now in bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon- yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers.

There  are two Scilla showing bud and a good colour and Muscari Blue Magic are now up and in tight bud. The first of our naturalising Tulips is in bud, but don’t hang  about  I don’t have  a huge  number left.

Pulmonaria varieties are in bud, not far from showing colour. We don’t have  much Blue Ensign left but plenty of the others. Most Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour and stood up well after several hard frosts we saw a couple of weeks ago.

Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great,  bushy tight bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. Cyclamen coum Silver-leaved are flowering and will flower from November through to March and April. 

Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy surgery

 

HiStill too wet for my liking. We had one glorious day on Wednesday and the rest was decidedly damp. I support it's better than being snowed in! The warmth on the skin on that one day was enough to encourage some Spring like feelings but we won't go into that.Apologies if you have  had any emails from us this week without a proper  ‘signature footer’ on the bottom. Our IT upgrade is still having a few teething issues and the tech team  (not me this time) slightly messed up the set-up of automatic signing of emails. We were told all was ready  and we no longer had to select anything to have  our ID message on the bottom, but it didn’t happen. Apologies if anyone wondered who we were with our bare  bottoms. Fingers crossed all has been resolved.A productive week on the nursery, probably because I was absent on trade  show duties for some of it. Greg dug a massive hole to find a leaking pipe joint in the rainwater harvesting system. It has been messing up the pumping of the rainwater from the sump at the lower end of the nursery to the storage tank at the top. Despite all the rain we have  had,  the tank was not quite filling up all because the leak was siphoning off the top couple of feet of water every time the rain stopped! It was quite a challenge to fix it, but all is complete and the tank is already full again.
The 12,000  new capillary mats are all cut up and stacked on pallets ready  for the coming season, all the broken  pallets are sawn up ready  for the despatch wood burner,  and the FSC plywood for all the POS  boards are cut and prepared with chamfered sides and corners, ready  for silk-screen printing. We had our young energetic, coffee fueled, and very professional tree surgeons in again, on their cherry picker lift, to clear the tops of a runaway conifer hedge that was beginning to interfere with the power cables. There  were a few other bits to tidy up too and they did a cracking job overall, leaving us with a lovely pile of chippings to spread under  the solar panels and a good-sized invoice. Exciting to see such dramatic changes happen so quickly.

The Squires trade  show was a rare day out for me, but it’s good for me to interact with the real world occasionally, or so I’m told. Some lovely chats with lots of people, just reminding me that we aren’t alone in trying to make  things better,  alongside making a living.
Summary of the improvements to shelf life for 2026
We are introducing three  changes this season in how we prepare our plants for delivery to our lovely retailers. We know some sites struggle to maintain the quality of our plants once  they arrive on the retail plant sales areas. 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. Do your 2026 retail prices need changing?We have  increased our cost prices for 2026 by just 5p per pot, which is a little under  2%, to partially cover our ever-increasing costs. If you have  your stock pre-priced by ourselves, perhaps now would be a good time to let us know any changes you would like to make  for the coming season. We can then adjust our records accordingly and get started on printing the correct  price labels in advance of the fast-approaching madness of those spring sales.
Availability list.The first spring bulbs are here,  and a few are already showing their first buds and colour.Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have  bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon-yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers. Bear in mind that both varieties look creamy lemon yellow when they first open,  but the White Petticoats fades to white as they age,  more than Julia who hangs on better  to the lemon yellow. Julia is also a more vigorous variety. Other compact Narcissus starting to show bud too
There  are two Scilla showing bud and a good colour, so spring must be coming up fast!There  are three  Pulmonaria varieties in bud and close to colour. We don’t have  much Blue Ensign left but plenty of the other two at the moment.Several Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour and are standing up well after several hard frosts we have  seen here.Cyclamen coum Silver-leaved are flowering and will flower from November through to March and April.Seasonal best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.