More hairy tech

Hi.

What a joyful week that was. Wall to wall rain and wind made everything very challenging. It was so dark first thing in the morning, we had to delay picking up the orders until it was light enough to see clearly what was being selected. On the plus side the wind turbines have been bowling along, generating plenty of excess power to send back into the grid. We have had momentary glimpses of brightness which give a taste of spring potential, so we are hopeful there will still be a few plant sales out there somewhere.

Work on the nursery continues apace whatever the weather and the overwinter plant cutting back and mulching is coming close to an end, perfect timing for the anticipated upturn in sales volumes (fingers crossed). Most of the team are out there in the unheated tunnels beavering away so another 2 or 3 weeks and we should be ready. 

Big turmoil this week with the upgrade to our IT system. A more up to date system, and a secure setup were the key attractions. We had been lagging behind on software programs, as I tried to resist setting up multiple subscription services but the time has come to drag myself into the new way of doing stuff. Hopefully you may notice more user-friendly versions of Word and Excel appearing on our weekly availability updates and we should see fewer file reading issues on the various formats that return to us as orders.

Monday saw the bulk of the IT installation done and the rest of the week has been spent trying to sort out multiple issues as they have arisen. The support desk has been great at providing quick fixes, although the monthly subscription rates have already gone up, because MS One Drive cloud storage is not quite what I thought it was! It gives us a massive volume of storage and backs up most stuff as you go through the day, so there is little chance of losing potentially precious data. The storage of data and computers is nearly all offsite now, so it makes us safe from being left in the lurch if there is an overnight fire or break-in. However, the nursery program which handles all the plant growing and order processing can’t be saved to One Drive because it needs scheduling to be done once or twice a day rather than continually. I have now learnt that One Drive can’t do this, so we must subscribe to another cloud, running a different type of backup. Ace.

I was anxious that we broke 365 Outlook which threw a wobbly as soon as we switched over to it and was intermittently bouncing emails back to us. The tech team have spent 3 days trying to sort it out, only to see that Microsoft announced this morning that they had server issues and it wasn’t just us. It is still happening but at least I don’t feel guilty about it now!

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.

Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on flowering, usually from November through to March and April. 

Some Erysimum varieties are already showing bud and the odd flash of colour, but this has been brought on by the mild winter so far. They are all pretty tough and are standing well against the frosts so far.

The first spring bulbs are here, and a few are already showing their first buds. Not much in the way of colour but it won't be long. Two of the hoop-petticoat Narcissus have bud, White Petticoat and the pale lemon-yellow Julia Jane, both are crackers.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries