Hairy haircuts

Hi Everyone,

Perfect weather for us, bright and cheery but cool enough to crack on at full pace on the tunnel clearance and potting. Hopefully it is good for you too, the tills must still be ringing judging by the level of orders last week. Having had a slightly quieter week previously and a better week on potting, we reverted back to manic sales and not enough potting! Had to have a team in again this morning to try and catch up a bit, but at the moment with next year's crops arriving at the same time as the late summer crops, it feels like we are under pressure again. Definitely not grumbling though, we are very lucky to be so busy and be given the chance to work our way out of all the earlier difficulties. As each week goes by things look a little easier although the battle to support the microprop lab out is proving a bit of a dampener. It is such a shame because the lab was performing it's best ever for the rolling year up to the end of December. At least that does give us the incentive that once back on track, it should regain that position, it just might take a year or two.
The continuing high sales levels are brilliant in the long term, but it is constantly putting availability and stock levels under pressure which I sometimes find difficult to cope with on a week by week and day to day basis. I can't help feeling guilty when we run out of stuff or the availability list looks a bit depleted so do forgive me if I sound a bit stressed if you contact me during the week. We don't like to let anyone down, but we will continue to work through very bewildering times and do the best we can to keep everyone happy.
Stopped early at eight last night so I could make time for an emergency home haircut, things were getting out of hand. No excuse really, I always get a home cut, it helps Caroline justify the mortgage she puts out for her trips for a tidy up. Luckily she had a cut immediately before the lockdown so got away with the first period, although various new bits of retaining kit have made an appearance in recent weeks trying to hold things back. We haven't yet embraced the new freedoms on what we
could now get up, to so no appointment in the diary yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. Greg has his first cut booked for this afternoon, for someone who loves a sharp and very regular cut I think he has resorted to borrowing some of Caroline's bands to keep things in check. There is a definite element of a continental footballers style at the moment, so we look forward to seeing the new creation later. I think that is the highlight of the upcoming weekend, lots of label printing and seed sowing and Caroline has a load of microprop modules to prepare for delivery on Monday morning. Making hay while the sun shines and all that.
After all that hot weather we thought the farm harvest might have got started early, but it seems not. The cooler wetter weather has slowed things up quite a bit but hopefully to the benefit of the yield for most crops. It had been looking a bit thin earlier with the weather being so erratic. Too wet in the winter and early spring to sow crops, then after very late drilling a really long hot and very dry spell, a quick splash of rain then back to hot and dry, it didn't look good. Hopefully the recent change will have come just in time for the later maturing crops and not spoil the early ones. A lot of fingers crossed!
Availability list highlights
A massive run again on herbs last week after I managed to produce a list last weekend. I have done one again for this week but with herb sales last week reaching close to the whole of July last year, stocks are again under pressure. There is more stock on the way just not quite ready, so please don't be tempted to overdo your buying, there will be new stock as each week passes.

Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Osteospermum Tresco Purple are on the list again in bud, as well as just a few plants of the other varieties. Hopefully enough TP for several more weeks!
The Salvia Hot Lips and Amythyst Lips are back in numbers now. Loads of buds are appearing now, after my extra trimming to get super bushy plants. Summer flowering Gaura are coming along nicely with buds on show and colour very close.
The fab compact Rudbeckia Little Goldstar have just started to produce their flower stems, with tight bud appearing. A little while before colour shows but the promise is there.
Fresh Helleborous foetidus and argutifolius too are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. Other Helleborous to follow shortly.
Nice neat and fresh new crops of Achillea Moonshine and Little Moonshine are in bud and looking good. Ajuga's are looking smart, especially Burgundy Glow.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy holidays

Hi Everyone,
All that heat seems like a distant memory today as the official restarting of the holiday season gets underway. After the chaos on the beaches in the sunshine a short while ago, I suspect a damp, cool and breezy weekend is actually the perfect start for most of those in charge if not for those lucky enough to get away. It should allow everyone to get the hang of things before any huge waves of enthusiasm threaten to overcome all the new arrangements. The press don't exactly help with all the talk of Super Saturday, whipping up the excitement levels when most of us I suspect just want to be sensible and keep safe. It's great that things are opening up again but we will still have to cope with living with the virus for a long while yet I suspect. Any thought of a holiday is a little way off for us just yet, 7 days a week in the relatively safe environment of the nursery is just fine with us. It's a long haul back to recovery and our time has to be spent getting things as right as we can make them for the next few months, to ensure things all hold together. The sales chaos of the last few weeks which resulted in such big stock shortages is showing some signs of easing, although it is all still a bit hand to mouth (with gloves on). The range of perennials has expanded slightly this week and I'm hoping it will continue to do so and joy of joy I have been able to put a herb list together for the first time for several weeks. The herbs stocks are still pretty restricted in range and numbers for some lines so there will still need to be a bit of flexibility in the system  but we do have some good numbers now of some of the most popular mints, parsley, sage, coriander, basil etc. We will just have to see how it goes, but with herb demand being so spectacularly high I just don't know quite how it will play out. We will continue to offer the option of us putting together a herb mix for you, as this seems to have gone down quite well with many customers and it does ensure you get the best mix we have to offer at that moment. We got back to some serious potting this week despite the continuing high sales demand. I am hoping to catch up even more this week as I know we have a couple more big module deliveries on the way and we need to be prepared for those. It's all go! I ordered all the spring bulbs last week and checked up on the continuing supply of the coir pots from our village in Sri Lanka. It has been such a rollercoaster over the last few months and in the early days, when we feared the worst, I did have to warn the importer that we may have to reduce our order for the rest of the year. This did cause some consternation both here and in Sri Lanka, because we are the main outlet for this small village unit and it would have made a big hole in their finances. Luckily it quite quickly became apparent that we were going to shift a lot of pots off site through the big plant giveaway, which took away the production blockage and allowed us to get back into full swing. In fact by the time we add the plants given away to the plants sold and those potted for summer sale, we will have used more pots than ever this year, so we definitely will need all three loads. This was great news for all but still left the worry of how the virus could affect potentially affect the villagers, the worker attendance over there, and possibly delay delivery. Luckily the production process is quite long, we always place the orders a year or so in advance and make sure we have plenty in stock here too, so we knew we had a little bit of leeway. We feared the worst with a less developed country, but in fact they coped with it all really well with low infection and death rates in the country as a whole and there was just a 3 week factory/barn shutdown. Our first load was already completed before the close down and that came in a couple of weeks ago, the next load should be here at the end of this month and the last comes in October, ready for some late autumn potting and to hold in store for the spring rush. Relief all round after all that excitement.
Availability list highlights
We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the coming weeks, but as always we will be doing our best, most of the time it seems to be working ok, bar the very occasional brain freeze on my part. Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are; Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for several more weeks! There are more batches on the way for these beauties too. The Salvia Hot Lips and Amythyst Lips are back in numbers this week! Buds are appearing now, despite my extra trimming to get super bushy plants. Summer flowering Gaura are coming along nicely with buds on show and colour very close. Fresh batches of Salvia nemerosa varieties are on the list. Buds showing but only small numbers available. Couldn't get any more stock! Red/purple foliage of Lysmachia Firecracker nicely on show with short bushy plants. Only have a few. Fresh Helleborous foetidus on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. Other Helleborous to follow shortly.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy news

Hi Everyone,
Still busy on sales again this week and still desperately short of herbs although I think I can see a recovery appearing. Trouble is that every time I think things are getting closer to normal another batch runs out!. Hopefully it is two steps forward and one back now, rather than a couple of weeks ago when it was the opposite. Again we managed to fulfil quite a few orders with a selection of our own choice of the herbs and again squeezed through to the end of the week. I'm going to have to offer the same service next week as numbers are still pretty low and batches are selling through so quickly. Hopefully a proper herb list will be on the cards for next weekend. Plenty of garden mint, sage, parsley, basil and coriander in the mixes for next week, so good stocks of many of the most popular lines.
The perennial list is still short too although there are lots more in the pipeline. The race to get through the orders, the emergency recovery potting and potting next spring's crops potting is definitely on. More modules arrived last week and despite my best intentions, getting the previous couple of weeks deliveries into pots largely failed which was a bit frustrating. A combination of lots of orders (good news, not complaining really), running out of potting compost, some well earned holiday taken by a few staff and the very hot weather, all combined to reduce potting to two days rather than the four we managed the previous week. Mind you we did clear a couple more tunnels in preparation and there are several more very empty tunnels ready for a final tidy and clean up, so we are primed. Perhaps next week will see a surge of potting again and we will start to catch up.
The distractions to potting are all around, as things return to a bit closer to normality. The frenetic sales of a few weeks ago are new resulting in the return of large numbers of our lovely wooden trays which all need a clean out before reuse. Exactly how it should be, but another job that we haven't done much of for the last 3 months thanks to this bizarre situation. In fact it is quite a relief really as we were getting quite low on box stock here but now suddenly the returns are more than keeping pace with sales so the cleaned boxes just go straight out again.
The massive herb sales this year has meant the wooden label printing machine has seen loads of use over the last few weeks, only just managing to keep ahead of the orders being processed. I try to get a large amount printed over the winter and early spring to avoid this sort of scenario, but a combination of factors even before the massive upturn, scuppered us on this master plan. The biggest distraction was replacing all the printing plates with ones with the new plant passport info which was a huge job. Thank goodness we got it all in place in good time. At the time it was a time consuming job, a big cost and we thought a huge inconvenience, although a necessary one. Little did we realise what lay round the corner. Now we know what a proper inconvenience is.

Availability list highlights
As already mentioned herbs stocks are now at an all time low and can only offer a mix of our own choice. Just let me know how many you can manage with for the moment and we will put something tasty together if we can. We have more stock growing but not quite ready yet.
We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will be doing our best, most of the time it seems to be working ok, bar the very occasional brain freeze on my part.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Eucomis autumnalis are just beginning to throw up their pale yellow flowers, an exotic plant for the garden. Most of our Hemerocalis are now in bud, short and stocky Crimson Pirate has the odd flash of dark colour showing. Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for several more weeks! There are more batches on the way for these beauties too.
The Salvia Hot Lips and Amethyst Lips are back on line this week. I've seen both coming into colour on the odd plant left from the earliest potted batches, they make a great pair. I wasn't sure about adding to the Hot Lips colour range, these additions don't always come off but I am impressed. The purple and white combination on Amethyst Lips is fab. I wish I had been able to secure more Cherry Lips too, which although a more subtle difference in colour to Hot Lips is still a great colour
combination. More next year, which will hopefully be a bit less chaotic. The current batches on offer are very close to showing bud and colour but I sacrificed the first flowers to get a stronger bushier plant. I think it will pay in the end. There are a lot coming to get ready!
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy variety

Hi Everyone,

Busy on sales again this week and still desperately short of herbs. We managed to fulfil quite a few orders with a selection of our own choice of the herbs and just squeezed through to the end of the week. I'm going to have to offer the same service next week as numbers are so low and batches are selling through so quickly. The perennial list is getting shorter too although for both ranges there are lots more in the pipeline, in fact I'm a bit nervous now that the ranges will reappear as the customer do the opposite! Fingers crossed we will keep things rolling along with fresh yummy plants that keep those tills ringing.
The modules for next year's crops have started rolling in, where has the time gone? The whole season looks like being a race to try and keep up and catch up. Luckily the fast rate of sales at the moment does help a lot with the crop turn-around and production efficiency, which should help lessen the blow of all the earlier chaos. It also gives everyone a boost that things are turning in our favour for the moment.
Still trying to catch up on the label printing and seed sowing, but should get a good run again this weekend as we have no potting team in on Saturday. After a long run of overtime and Saturday sessions everyone has earned a little rest so they can come back hopefully refreshed on Monday. The fact that we ran out of compost today has nothing to do with the pause really! Potting solidly for 12 days out of the last 14 has eaten through supplies really quickly and the next load isn't due in until Tuesday, but we should have plenty of despatching and tunnel clearing to do on Monday so we aren't going to be short of useful things to do.
The microprop lab has been suffering from cancelled orders, both current and future, but things are picking up on that front too. Demand is firming up again and we are having to plan a return of more lab staff into a safe working environment. This is tricky in a work room with six staff sat next to each other, all working in their laminar air flow cabinets. We have had two or three staff in there so far, to maintain a safe distance, but with the arrival of new Perspex screens this week, to position between everyone, we should have more options from next week. I fitted out the first cabinet last night as a test and all seems to have worked ok, so I'll try and get the rest sorted over the weekend. The workload hasn't built up in there yet to be flat out, but we are going to have to start quite an investment in staff hours to ramp things up again. It's a long way back in there, you can't just leave the stock unattended for very long before it all falls apart. I'm sure it will be the same for many in this crisis, it's going to be a long haul to recovery.
Good chance last week to get fully kitted out in my second favourite PVC outfit. A head to toe job with wellies, gloves and face shield, quite a performance! Our first delivery of nitric acid this year into our special caged, vapour proofed, bunded little acid tank, just so we can drip it into the irrigation storage tank to balance out the PH of the water. It is a brilliant system when compared to the old way of using little drums which constantly needed handling and changing. Now we have one pump-over delivery into the tank every 9 months or so, where the driver (all kitted up too) does all the hose fitting and pump operation while I stand at a safe distance with my emergency hose at the ready, just in case of any problems. It is all over in 10 minutes and all is stripped off and locked away safely again. Not quite a joy, but not far off it and so much easier and safer than the old days.

Availability list highlights
As already mentioned herbs stocks are now at an all time low and can only offer a mix of our own choice. Just let me know how many you can manage with for the moment and we will put something tasty together if we can. We have more stock growing but not quite ready yet.
We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will be doing our best, most of the time it seems to be working ok, bar the very occasional brain freeze on my part.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Eucomis autumnalis are just beginning to throw up their pale yellow flowers, an exotic plant for the garden. Most of our Hemerocalis are now in bud. Short and stocky Crimson Pirate has the odd flash of dark colour showing. We have some strong bushy Crocosmia varieties looking great, it will be a while before they flower, perfect for planting now. Cosmos Chocamocha and Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for a couple more weeks! There are more batches on the way for these beauties too. The Salvia Hot Lips and Amythyst Lips are back on line this week but Cherry Lips are having a break, more of these later.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy wildlife

Hi Everyone,
Slightly more organised this week after a welcome dip in sales after three mega busy weeks. Just about running out of herbs put the brakes on some sales I'm sure and unfortunately next week won't be much different. Anyway it has given us a bit of extra clearing and potting time which has been great. We have a couple more extra staff in to help out over the next month or two, which means we can pot and despatch at the same time, a real novelty for us. The tunnel clearing has miraculously also kept ahead of the full steaming potters, which is a dream, it's like a well oiled machine out there, we could almost be professional! The perennials are also getting a bit low on numbers, although we have done a scary amount of potting over the last couple of weeks so that position should recover very soon. The next herbs are also well on the way, so hopefully it won't be too long before we have a list to present again. Meanwhile we can only offer a mixed herb trolley of our own choice for the coming week and we may have to limit volumes a bit to spread the joy a little further. Just let me know how many you need to get by and we will do our best to put a nice mix together from the limited range we have. There are a few coriander, parsley, dill, tarragon, rosemary, so it won't be a mix of  'odd herbs' but I do have to emphasise numbers are still low so please don't get too excited just yet. As well as my weekly herb sowing, this weekend should give me the chance to get a few more wooden labels printed, it's been a bit hand to mouth over the last couple of weeks with the huge volumes needed, printing has been a 'just in time' process which isn't how I really like to work. The odd label being needed for an order is fine, but when a list appears on my desk and the order is already being picked up, the pressure builds. I always think there will be time to catch up but so far that time has just disappeared and catching up has been a distant dream! Some of that time this week was spent under the potting machine, which had a moment. The pot take-off arm was failing in its duties and being very lethargic in its attitude to work. It failed to respond to a good talking too or generous amounts of lubrication, which usually does the job for me, and we had to resort to phone a man who knows. Instant diagnosis and a quick adjustment to a rocker valve under the machine sorted it all out. It was just wearing down with age, just like the rest of us. Now if I could find my own rocker valve to adjust, I'd be fine. Swallows are sitting on their nest in the donkey shed, having given up in the barn. We didn't have a pair last year so it's good to have them back. Sadly the large colony of House Martins we used to have on the house (peaked at 13 nests in 2017) have deserted us and for the second year I have no dawn chirping outside the bedroom window. Plenty of other bird activity though with daily sightings of Red Kites over the nursery, they saw a group of 8 over the farm last week so they are definitely well and truly settled in. Robins are sitting on eggs again in the stack of crates we use as a work table in the potting tunnel. The first lot fledged ok so they seem happy enough working round the potting team who keep a close eye on progress. There are young wagtails, sparrows and blue tits all over the place at the moment despite the threat from all the jackdaws and magpies so they all seem to be doing ok at the moment. We have seen up to four hedgehogs in the garden on the night vision security camera feeding on the nightly feast put out there by Caroline. It is special hedgehog food that looks suspiciously like GoCat although it does smell different. Big highlight this week was a slowworm in the nursery cottage garden, I haven't seen one for years.
Availability list highlights
As already mentioned herbs stocks are now at an all time low and can only offer a mix of our own choice. Just let me know how many go can manage with for the moment and we will put something yummy together if we can. We have more stock growing but not ready yet. We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will do our best. Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are; Both Oxalis are now in bud with a bit of colour showing on both, but don't hang  about they are disappearing fast. All of our Hemerocalis are now in bud. We have some strong bushy Crocosmia varieties looking great, it will be a while before they flower, perfect for planting now. The short Eryngium Blue Hobbit is showing off its spiky flower stems and buds. Cosmos Chocamocha and Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for a couple of weeks! The Salvia Hot Lips and its new friends are running low for next week but lots more ready again after that, so don't panic.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Nearly all gone hairy...

Hi Everyone,
Sorry no time for notes today, just got too much to do and not enough hours.
Another nuts week, tunnels are emptying rapidly. Herbs have all gone bar some stragglers, perennial depleting rapidly but still there. Potting as much as we can but shortages elsewhere and continued high demand are stretching us very thin, so apologies if we don't have the stock you would like to have.

Availability list highlights

Just a warning that herbs stocks are now at an all time low, we effectively have none for the next week. We have stock growing but not ready yet, and only in a limited range so things may improve marginally over the next few weeks but it is going to be tricky. We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will do our best.

Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Both Oxalis are now in bud with a bit of colour showing on both, but don't hang about they are disappearing fast. Monarda Balmy series in three colours looking strong short and bushy. Just about to show their buds looking at their peak but running low. Erigeron Wayne Roderick with loads of buds and a few opening now. Most of our Hemerocalis are now in bud. We have some strong bushy Crocosmia varieties looking great, it will be a while before they flower, perfect for planting now. Fresh lovely batches of Delph's coming ready. Fast growers at this time of year and will be flowering in no time. Very few left. Rhodanthemums are now looking lovely with the first of their all summer flowering just started. Small tight plants they are about to go forth and make a show of themselves.
This year we have two new Salvia varieties to accompany Hot Lips which sells in such big numbers. Amethyst Lips and Cherry Lips are great variations to join the team and will they will all be in bud very soon. Short and bushy at the moment, this is going to be the start of hopefully, a long season of Salvia sales. We have a few charming viola's in flower, but only a few. The short Eryngium Blue Hobbit is showing off its spiky flower stems and buds. Only two Dianthus varieties left (Coconut Sundae and Romance). A couple of fresh batches just coming into first bud now.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Super Sales

Hi Everyone,
Apologies for the delay in getting this list out there. It has been even more hectic this week than last week. In fact it was a record week for hairy pot sales, just beating the previous record back in 2010 when we were supplying a couple of big chains with allocated start of season orders. A more realistic comparison would be with last year's best week, because last year was our best year of more 'normal' sales. This week was 33% up on the best of last year and that is with lots of customers still closed. It's no wonder other nurseries are struggling to cope if they are dealing with a higher percentage of garden centre customers. We just about managed to get everyone's orders out although four small ones did have to slip into a Saturday morning delivery. Frustratingly we had the van capacity but couldn't process the orders fast enough despite raiding the lab for all their staff whenever we could. We have nearly all the nursery staff back, although the lab staffing is still very depleted for a variety of reasons. We have one new helper who started 2 weeks ago, which is working out really well and hopefully we will have equal success with two more who are starting in the next couple of weeks. It's quite tricky integrating extra new staff when we are all trying to keep the social distancing up, especially when the work pressure is so high. So far it has gone pretty well with everyone remembering the rules most of the time. A few verbal reminders are needed when excitement gets the better of some, but overall everyone coping really well to keep safe and be productive.
I will stop rabbiting on as I need to get this list out there and I have a shed load of other chores to get through before we start the whole process again on Monday.

Availability list highlights
Just a warning that herbs stocks are now very low after bonkers demand over the last two weeks. We have more stock coming on but you may have to be patient with us on volume deliveries. I'm not sure quite how we are going to manage this but some may go short on herb varieties and hopefully you can sell a few more perennials, although sales of these are nuts too. There is still stock out there and more coming on, so we are hoping the system isn't going to fall apart, but these are such unpredictable times we have to take each day as it comes. We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will do our best.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Both Oxalis are now in bud with a bit of colour showing on the Iron Cross. Monarda Balmy series in three colours looking strong short and bushy. Just about to show their buds looking at their peak.
Erigeron Wayne Roderick really chunky and strong with loads of buds and a few opening now in all this sunshine. The first of our Hemerocalis are now in bud. The fab dark flowered Black Prince has plenty of tight bud now. Tradescantia Blue and Gold are now showing good bud and a flash of colour. Incarvillea a late emerger but rushes up to flower pretty quickly. It's up and buds are on show and colour too, so don't miss it.
Helianthus in a range of colours now in bud and showing colour. We have some strong bushy Crocosmia varieties looking great, it will be a while before they flower, perfect for planting now. Fresh lovely batches of Delph's coming ready. Fast growers at this time of year and will be flowering in no time. Rhodanthemums are now looking lovely with the first of their all summer flowering just started. Small tight plants they are about to go forth and make a show of themselves. This year we have two new Salvia varieties to accompany Hot Lips which sells in such big numbers. Amethyst Lips and Cherry Lips are great variations to join the team and will they will all be in bud very soon. Short and bushy at the moment, this is going to be the start of hopefully, a long season of Salvia sales. We have a few charming viola's in flower, but only a few,
The Verbena Lollipop and rigida are throwing up flower spikes, but again only a few left. There are more in the pipeline, Helianthemums are showing loads of colour, they just go on and on, 3 colours, gold, cerise and pink. The short Eryngium Blue Hobbit is showing off its spiky flower stems and buds. Just a few Alcea (Hollyhocks) left, be quick they will be gone in a fortnight if not before. (Purple and nigra) Only two Dianthus varieties left (Coconut Sundae and Romance). A couple of fresh batches just coming into first bud now.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.