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.
