Hairy heatwave

Hi. 

That was a hot one. Just a couple more days to go and we can look forward to cooler temperatures and the odd shower, which hopefully won’t be too heavy. Our thermometer was registering 37C in the shade over the last couple of days and in the prop tunnel it peaked today at 39.7C. The mist unit in there also maintains a high humidity, to keep the rooting cuttings turgid, which adds to the feeling of uncontrollable heat gain, which is quite frightening if you are in there too long. Naturally we had to give up working on cutting production other than a few hours earlier in the week, in fact it was a pretty disrupted week all round, with earlier starts to the day and very early finishes, except for those of us lucky enough to be able to retire to the relative comfort of the air-con in the office! That was still running at 27C+ at times when the window had to be opened and extractor fan turned on to vent out the printing vapours. 

Although more comfortable, we did feel a bit left out, having started at 6.30 we were still here 12 hours later when most others had retired home at lunchtime.  Although orders had been supressed by the heat, we did manage to clear some space to squeeze in a bit of potting. The fans and shading we installed in the potting tunnel and despatch a few years ago come into their own in weather like this, making the mornings bearable and preventing productivity from disappearing down the drain altogether. We still very much rely on the excellent toughest members of the team who seem to relish the heat, because without them picking up the orders, clearing and scraping the very hot production tunnels, putting plants down and watering them in, we would be sunk.  

The lower number of practical jobs we could actually attempt this week meant we couldn’t sensibly provide work for everyone all the time, so we are also grateful to those who opted to reduce their hours or take days off, as we knew they could keep safe and be more comfortable at home. In a way these heatwaves are now virtually the same as ‘snow days’ in the winter, when we end up replying on those brave enough and tough enough to get into work to continue to function, while others take extra time off to stay safe and cosy by the fire. 

There is a possibility me may collect the new electric delivery van next week, it has all gone a bit quiet, but it is paid for and insured, so we must be close. We are going to try something a bit different with this van and a couple of the others too if it works out ok. We are having some signwriting designed to stick on the van to say who we are and maybe show what we do, then you will be able to see it is us from further away, get even more excited about your delivery and get that kettle on! 

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

Availability list.

Plant growth is rampant, plenty of bud and colour to tug open those purse strings. The super popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are more follow-on batches coming too.  Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. The ever-popular Erigeron karv. Stallone has loads of bud and flower, ready for a summer full of pretty little daisy flowers. The pretty Foam Flower Tiarella wherrii are now in flower and bud We already have several Asters in bud, which are usually something we associate with late summer!  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. There are some cracking Verbena’s Lolliop ready to go. Don’t miss out on this very popular line. Coreopsis are now in bud in a great range of colours. A couple of the summer flowering Crocosmia are now in bud, The taller and very red Lucifer and the more compact golden yellow George Davidson. Emberglow, another red but shorter than Lucifer, is only a week or so away from bud showing too. Summer must be here with bud on several of the Agapanthus varieties. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have plenty of Scabiosa in bud in a range of colours, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are back in bud again after recovering from our ever-hungry rampaging hares. 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. Oxalis Iron Cross is back on the list and in bud, after we gave it the Chelsea Chop just short time ago. We cut them right back to compost and there now back on show again, looking great. Phlox paniculata varieties are showing bud on super strong stems, get them quick before they go. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this year; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and the tender herbs like Basil are now making their summertime appearance. Strawberries are looking great, especially those showing colour. Tarragon is back and the Mints have recovered nicely too. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy mist

Hi. 

Here comes the heat again, for the south-east and central southern areas anyway. Hoping it doesn’t get quite as hot as last time and that it passes by more quickly too. The way the heat is intensifying over Europe again doesn’t bode well for keeping things cool here, but a least for us there is always that cooler Atlantic air mass waiting close by to cool us down when the wind eventually turns again. The regularity of extreme heat patterns across Europe I find quite scary. I fear we are now too late to do anything about it? We are trying to do our bit here, but I fear the drive for commercial gain and self-gratification among the wealthier populations of the world is just too strong a tide to turn. It’s always someone else’s fault, I know. 

Our two young folk have travelled up to take a look at the HTA National Plant Show today and have a catch up on what is ‘going down’ among all the coolest production nurseries. It is a long time since we took a stand there to show our wares, I think it was 2014 and 2015. It was just after the demise of the Woking Show which was always our regular more localised event of the summer. We only attended the National Plant Show a couple of times, but despite the excited attention we attracted over the two days, it didn’t actually bring in much new business. Most of the interest seemed to be based in Scotland or other outer reaches of the country or was from interested visitors wanting to talk about the concept rather than actually buy anything. Since then, the demand for our stock has been such that ‘word of mouth’ has been sufficient advertising to keep a fresh flow of customers coming our way each season, which is a great way to progress if a little passive for modern business practices. We do tend to travel our own path anyway, which has taken us off the beaten track, creating a unique plant growing business which most of the time now advertises itself. Well, that’s the theory! 

After major expansion of our seed sowing operations over the last 15 months, to increase our peat-free propagated range, we have now also started rooting more cuttings too. I built a small mist unit last summer in our now unused micro-prop weaning tunnel, but the solenoid controller was never set up properly and we struggled with things getting either far too wet or too dry. This winter we installed a more sophisticated TomTech control computer in the prop tunnel, along with new temperature and humidity sensors and better control switch-work on the mist unit itself. It has taken a while to set things up just right, but the results have been really encouraging, to the point where it became apparent this week that we didn’t have enough capacity under the updated mist area. Luckily, I already had some spare mist nozzles in stock and plenty of pipework so after a £25 pipe fitting purchase, I was able to glue a load of bits together and double the area the unit covered. A great result which hopefully will extend our range of homegrown young plants even further.  

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

Availability list. 

Plant growth is rampant, the plants loved the cooler temperatures and wetter conditions. Lots of bud and plenty of colour. Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. The ever-popular Erigeron karv. Stallone has loads of bud and flower, ready for a summer full of pretty little daisy flowers. The pretty Foam Flower Tiarella wherrii are now in flower and bud We already have several Asters in bud this week, which are usually something we associate with late summer!  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. There are some cracking Verbena’s ready to go. Don’t miss out on these very popular lines Coreopsis are now in bud in a great range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on several of the Agapanthus varieties. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa in bud, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are back in bud again after recovering from our ever-hungry rampaging hares. The super 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. 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 short time ago. We cut them back to compost and there now back on show again, looking grand. 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 tender herbs like Basil are now making their summertime appearance. Strawberries are looking great, especially those showing colour. Tarragon is back and the Mints have recovered too. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy Jive

Hi. 

Another lovely week with plenty of showers although possibly a bit cool at times. Next week down here looks a cracker with drier conditions, more sun but temperatures still sensible rather than silly. Our single biggest young plant delivery of the year pitched up this morning, all looking strong and healthy. Most of it is for next spring although hopefully we may get a few out by the autumn. It has taken me most of the day to unpack it, give a few varieties a trim, put them down in the right place and check it all off. There are a few new varieties in there which will be interesting to see how they do, and best of all out of 396 trays only 5 still had some peat in them, so nearly all will be available to our National Trust and RHS sites. We definitely missed out on a few sales this winter with only a couple of varieties of our Helleborus being propagated in peat-free modules, but this time they are all peat-free. We have had notification of the date when our electric van will be finished, only a couple of weeks to go. We will then need to do a bit of tinkering at our end with registration numbers and one or two internal tweaks and then we will be ready to roll, using plenty of our home-produced energy to deliver our plastic free plants. Another big step forwards.  

We are installing a couple of new 3 phase 23 Kw chargers to supplement our existing one, in a position on the nursery that can serve two vans at a time, but the knock-on effect of a delay in our generator replacement means they won’t be operational in time for the van delivery. For the first few weeks we will have to block the farm track in order to reach the existing charger which isn’t ideal as they rapidly approach harvest time. One day one of my master plans will come together. As well as having a busy sales week, which always perks everyone up (we haven’t been perked much so far this spring!) 

I’ve had a brilliant time getting away from the nursery and onto the jive dancefloor! Last Saturday was one of Danny’s (our young good-looking driver) big events at the Winchester Guildhall, 3 dance floors and a D-Day themed Ball. There was a 16-piece 1940’s big band in the main-hall with most people dressing for the occasion. 4 hours of solid dancing is certainly a good way to keep fit, have a laugh and take your mind off everything else. By midnight I could barely walk back to the car.  That was followed by more moves in Basingstoke on Monday and Winchester again on Tuesday, My legs don’t know what’s hit them. 

Social media on trend I believe there might be a little video clip of the current batches of strawberry on Instagram. To find our Instagram content try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Plant growth is rampant, the plants are loving the cooler temperatures and wetter conditions. Lots of bud and plenty of colour. Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. The ever-popular Erigeron karv. Stallone has loads of bud and flower, ready for a summer full of pretty little daisy flowers. 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 We already have several Asters in bud this week, which are usually something we associate with late summer!  

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. There are some cracking Verbena’s ready to go. Don’t miss out on these very popular lines Nice chunky Lupins have the first of multiple buds appearing, They should flower for ages. Coreopsis are now in bud in a great range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on several of the Agapanthus varieties. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa in bud, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are back in bud again after recovering from our ever-hungry rampaging hares. The super 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 too are now showing plenty of bud and now a bit of colour too. 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 short time ago. We cut them back to compost and there now back on show again, looking grand. 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. Strawberries are looking great, especially the those showing colour. Tarragon is back and the Mints have recovered too. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and rampant

Hi. 

That was a much better week, a lot cooler and a nice drop of rain spread over several days. Just what the gardens needed. Sales recovered nicely and productivity took a big step in the right direction. 

Realisation has crept in that we are getting into that mad period when sales are still bowling along, while at the same time we need to start clearing tunnels for next seasons crops. We had a good number of our Rosemarys for next spring arrive this week and the first of our big Dutch module deliveries for next year arrives next week. This usually sparks mild panic, with not enough time or space to cope with all the stock and nursery activity, but I’m hoping this year will be a bit more controlled. Mind you, I always think we are going to be better organised than last year and it’s never actually come true before. 

As I expected this probably wasn’t the best year to expand the workforce with sales not quite exciting enough and production knocked out of kilter last summer by the new demands for peat-free propagation material from some sectors of our market. We also shut our micro-prop lab last summer which created some disruption, although it freed up more of our propagation area for doing more of our own traditionally propagated stock. A new mist unit in there has helped keep the cutting propagation viable with very good success rates and the seed sowing has been better this year after several disasters with peat-free seed composts last season. The peat-free glue plug modules are still proving to produce better young plants than our loose-fill modules, especially with the slower growing varieties, but we can’t get those in our reusable trays which means more use of single use plastic, all very frustrating.  

Talking of frustration, the electric van should have been here a couple of weeks ago but the backdoor loading ramp, which is made by a separate company, has been delayed. Shouldn’t be long.  Don’t forget to get your stocks in of our ’take-me-home’ plants, good for physical and mental health of your staff and customers, great for wildlife and the environment and helps keeps our heads above water! 

Social media on trend I believe there might be a little video clip of the current batches of strawberry on Instagram. To find our Instagram content try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Plant growth is rampant, the plants are loving the cooler temperatures and wetter conditions. Lots of bud and plenty of colour. Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. All three Erigeron’s are nicely in bud and looking summery. The ever-popular Erigeron karv. Stallone has loads of bud, ready for a full summer of scrambling pretty little daisy flowers. 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 We already have several Asters in bud this week, which are usually something we associate with late summer!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. Nice chunky Lupins have the first of multiple buds appearing, They should flower for ages. Coreopsis are now in bud in a great range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on a couple of the Agapanthus varieties. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa in bud, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are back in bud again after recovering from our ever-hungry rampaging hares. The super 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. 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 short time ago. We cut them back to compost and there now back on show again, looking grand. 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. Strawberries are looking great, especially the those showing colour. Tarragon is back and the Mints have recovered too. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.