Hairy reminiscing

 

Masses to do with more deliveries of stock arriving for next year. Sales slowed up a bit after the damp weekend, but some fab stuff is leaving the nursery with so much bud and colour on show. Van celebrations this week as we nearly kept all five on the road. Just one slip with a cracked windscreen messing up the novelty of a full deck. Best news of all is that, touch wood, the rogue Fiat may well be cured after a whole week on the road and no warning lights or limp home mode engaged. We will give it another week before declaring success, but it looks promising.

We had a bit more time potting this week so made a bit of a hole in the backlog, but still a long way to go and I can see that frustratingly we are going to run out of compost before the next load is due. We will make good use of any spare time to clear some extra tunnel space ready to blast away when the opportunity comes and we also have a lot of wooden boxes coming back in now we have passed our peak in despatch, so plenty of those to clean up and start to stack away back into storage which will keep us off the streets.

Feeling my age a bit this week after being knocked back by a nasty bug. I was fairly convinced it wasn't covid until just as I thought I was improving a bit I lost my sense of taste and smell. Caroline assures me I do still smell which might be reassuring in some ways but less so in others. Hoping it returns soon, it makes meal times very dull and that's usually the highlight of the day. The other knock-back was attending the lovely retirement BBQ of our friends Roger and Mary who ran Choice Plants, a fantastic nursery, cafe and craft business which was so well loved by the local community. I met Roger just a few years ago in our college days, through hockey fixtures between Writtle and Wye College's, where he taught me all I know about 'Rabbits', the drinking game, after trouncing us on the pitch. Occasions where I have laughed 'till I thought I would burst. That makes us in the same age bracket and gentle reminder that time is passing by.

I'm looking forward to a day out next week with a visit to one of Ball Colgrave's summer open days. I went last year after a long break and picked up a couple of good new varieties as well as taking lots of images of plants we grow here, in their display gardens. Hopefully the taste buds will be operational by then as the packed lunch is worth the trip alone. I'm a cheap date! Talking of days out, it looks like the Nursery Business Improvement Scheme may be up and running again after a couple of years on the back burner. A meeting in August is proposed to re-launch it, with a new consultant at the helm which should add a new spark. I really miss the quarterly therapeutic benefits of having to own up to being a nurseryman and sharing all the cock ups and woes as well as all the successes. Just hope there are enough members left to make it work. 

Availability list.

Looking great are our new compact and very early flowering range of Asters is now on stream. The Alpha series has fresh green foliage and very neat domed habit carrying masses of flower. They are already in bud and it won't be long before colour appears. Fresh batches of Scabiosa in bud, green compact and bushy with masses of bud on the way.

The first batches of the summer and autumn flowering mini garden Chrysanthemums are already in bud. Summer flowering Crocosmia are now throwing up buds, Lobelia in bud now in a range of colours.

The Gaillardia Guapa series we are trying out are looking great. Strong and compact the first buds are already out. Summer colour is on its way with the Gaura range doing it's thing. Hoping to have a good run of availability over the next few months but they are selling so fast there may be the odd short break.

New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Five colours, nice and compact and already showing good colour. Fresh crops of Erigeron karv. Stallone are ready with its tiny multicolour daisy flowers that come all summer long. Salvia's of all sorts are now growing strongly and producing the first of many flowers.

Sunshine yellow flowers of Euryops chrysanthemoides are beginning to open, another all summer performer. Masses of bud and colour with the Bidens Efframs Gold. Already making an eye catching show they look fab. The hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are in bud and flower. Excellent bushy stock.

Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are now showing plenty of colour with loads more to come. No white this year but a series of three pretty different pinks making a delightful show. The more standard classic Sea Thrift Many of the Leucanthemums are coming into strong bud now with flowers open on some.

The Balloon Flower Platycodon Twinkle Blue and Twinkle White are now well into bud with the odd flash of colour, Rhodanthemum's are also in bud and showing colour, ready to flower all summer long.

So many other lines doing their thing at the moment, Sedum, Veronica, Penstemon, Lewisia, Astilbe, Fuchsia,  Achillea, Coreopsis, Calamintha, don't hold back make the most of them while they are hot and the weather isn't! 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Lotus

Hi

Usual hectic 'summer' week. Comfortable temperatures to get things done and a busy week on the sales front. Another container of pots arrived, ouch, and the delayed compost delivery. Plans to tuck into the compost pile went a little off track with the arrival of so many orders, but we are not complaining, well not too much, but now the pressure is building to deal with the mounting numbers of plants waiting to be potted. Best not to look in the prop tunnels and just pretend all is well. Wonders of all wonders today we actually have all 5 vans on the road, which is nearly the first time this year. The rogue Fiat that has been in the garage over ten times for the same fault, has been given a new set of injectors to try and overcome the repeating fault messages and fingers crossed this could be an actual cure this time. Next week will be the test, when it goes out on some proper runs. After such a disastrous run of garage visits I must admit the dealer seemed to pull out all the stops this time, the parts arrived and were fitted in double quick time, it was all done under the now expired warrantee, it is wonderfully clean and has a full tank of fuel. I am now full of hope rather than dread that it will get to and from its next destination, which is a much more positive feeling than the last few times it has been picked up.

Other distractions this week included a great visit to the nursery of a group from a couple of the more far flung of our National Trust sites. I always get terribly nervous about showing people about as I can always see the stuff that isn't quite how I would like it and my preparations as to what to say are always non-existent. We had spent an hour or so having a quick tidy up, just to make it not too untidy and overall it didn't look too bad. I was able to rabbit on for over two hours as we toured the site, there were lots of sensible questions and I think we all got something valuable out of the experience. No one fell asleep and there were a couple of times when my lighter, possibly flippant, remarks drew the right sort of response, so all was well. Wednesday was a difficult day with the local funeral of one of Caroline's farming uncles. He was a lovely, quiet and gentle man who judging by the massive attendance will be missed by many. Outside farming his main pastime was hill-climbing (the competitive 'fast car up a hill' kind) and on show in the marquee afterwards was his pride and joy his 1965 Lotus Mk22 looking absolutely stunning. This particular car was specifically built by Lotus for hill climbing rather than circuit racing, so is one of very few of this type, if not unique. It is just a classic schoolboy racing car shape (Jim Clarke era) which is almost before my time, but not quite. Lotus envy in spades.

Availability list.

A new compact and very early flowering range of Asters is now on stream. The Alpha series has fresh green foliage and very neat domed habit carrying masses of flower. They are already in bud and it won't be long before colour appears. The first batches of the summer and autumn flowering mini garden Chrysanthemums are already in bud. Summer flowering Crocosmia are now throwing up bud, with the tall striking scarlet Lucifer and shorter golden George Davidson doing their thing.

Lobelia in bud now in a range of colours. Starship Scarlet in particular is looking really good. The Gaillardia Guapa series we are trying out are looking great. Strong and compact the first buds are already out. Summer colour is on its way with the Gaura range doing it's thing. Hoping to have a good run of availability over the next few months but they are selling so fast there may be the odd short break.

New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Five colours, nice and compact and already showing good colour. Fresh crops of Erigeron karv. Stallone are ready with its tiny multicolour daisy flowers that come all summer long. Salvia's of all sorts are now growing strongly and producing the first of many flowers. Sanguisorba Tanna has both attractive foliage and subtle magenta balls of flower, making it a classic border plant. Sunshine yellow flowers of Euryops chrysanthemoides are beginning to open, another all summer performer.

Masses of bud and colour to come with the Bidens summer range. Already making an eye catching show they look fab. Dianthus are producing flower stems and lots of bud. All are scented varieties and very bushy. The hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are in bud and flower. Excellent bushy stock. Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are now showing plenty of colour with loads more to come. No white this year but a series of three pretty different pinks making a delightful show. The more standard classic Sea Thrift Armeria maritima are also in flower too above fresh new growth.

Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and in flower. Delightful heady vanilla scent abounds when you walk close by. Many of the Leucanthemums are coming into strong bud now with flowers open on some. The Balloon Flower Platycodon Twinkle Blue and Twinkle White are now well into bud with the odd flash of colour.  Rhodanthemum's are also in bud and showing colour, ready to flower all summer long. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.