Good morning all.
It’s still so mild down here, doesn’t really feel like November is about to hit us. I hope it will be gentle with me, I’m fee ling a bit fragile at the moment. It’s not just to do with the fantastic casino and cocktail party we went to last night where I lost all my money in an instant (a bit like investing in a nursery), luckily it was only pretend money this time but the cocktails weren’t pretend. It’s also not due to the previous weekend break we had, on a package deal to Tresco, which proved to be just as eventful as predicted. All flights cancelled on Friday due to low cloud and high winds, got soaked to the skin in a deluge while walking along Whitesands bay before an overnight stop in Sennen and an early start Saturday only to find no flights again and seats on the ‘Big White Stomach Pump’ (Scillonian 111) booked for our pleasure. We checked-in on the quay side as waves crashed over the harbour wall and news filtered through that the ship had not returned from the Islands the day before as it was too rough! Nearly came straight home. In the end it was all very exciting, a bit like a very long roller coaster ride as we crashed through the huge swell. Although there were a lot of very ill people the staff were great at keeping everything clean and fresh and luckily our group of 4 were fine which was a relief as I usually feel sick on the tea-cup ride. Over the next 30 hours we did some walking, a lot of eating with a little something to wash it all down, bird and red squirrel spotting (6 Water Rails which we had never seen before), 3 party/gigs, two trips round Tresco Abbey Gardens and a very quick plane ride back to the mainland. A real adventure of a weekend, meeting some lovely new faces and a destination thoroughly recommended for a refreshing break. Tip number one has to be to take the plane!
The bigger fragility is being felt with the usual impending dip in cash flow combined with not very positive news in the ornamental nursery sector. Hort Week is full of lots of ‘Garden Centres’ revealing their true colours as ‘Home and Leisure centres’ with greatly diminished emphasis on plants and gardens. To be fair, you could see this coming and hopefully it will open some opportunities for some retail plant specialists but for the plant producers it seems to point to a continuous fall in range grown and market availability. On the back of this we are seeing many nurseries being sold off, closed or getting into difficulties (at least one big one is currently trying to take up a CVA arrangement with its creditors to avoid the final crunch), this is after two years of rubbish weather and then a nicer year of disappointing sales for most. Thin or non-existent margins even when times are better, are bringing about the inevitable consequences, what a good job we do this for love and life style! We are just thankful that next season looks so much more positive for us, with plenty new developments and demand building up, just need to batten down the hatches until a busy new year arrives.
Why, when it says ‘Speed up browsing by disabling add-on’s’ does it give you three options none of which allow you to do it? Send me back to Tresco, they were looking for a new propagator.
Availability
A new strain of hardy Cyclamen coum (Cyberia) is coming into colour, three colours which are due to flower from November to April. Nice chunky, tidy plants with lots of potential.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few in flower already. They are named varieties but at the moment those names are under review and they may well be renamed by the breeder in the near future to something more attractive!
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already and the Red Jep have already started producing bud.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers still showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in sometime and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 27 October 2014
Monday, 13 October 2014
Hairy Hat Trick
Good morning all,
Things getting a bit quieter here now as the temperatures fall away. Just rushing round now trying to make the most of the remaining warmth. There is the usual autumnal burst of plant growth from all the perennials before things start going dormant. Always nice to see the heart of the young stock build up before the winter, ready for that early strong spring burst of growth and sales. Looking forward to that.
Relief all round as we got three more tunnels re-clad last week which just leaves one little one to do and we need to do some constructional repairs on that one before covering so that might take a while.
I’m now getting stuck into ordering young stock for potting next spring which is always an interesting exercise. On one hand I know the cash-flow is about to dive in the wrong direction along with the temperature so it feels like time to batten down the hatches. But in reality I really need to prize open my jar of optimism and assume we will sell some stock again when the days lengthen and with demand looking really strong for 2015 we are going to need plenty to sell. There is always that scary unknown factor of the weather to work into the equation, but hopefully we will get a good run at some point through the season to pull it all together.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the stock next season resplendent behind our new design of label. I’ve always been quite jealous of those nurseries big enough to run with their own bespoke labels creating a smart coordinated look, even if they might sometimes be a bit overpowering. Recent changes in digital printing means the size and cost of minimum print runs has come down, together with the ability to print our own short runs on site to the same design, which makes having our new look economically viable. The added bonus with our new labels is the really practical and innovative design providing so many extra benefits to us, the producer, and you, the customer. It all helps add to my excitement. It does take much!
Talking of excitement, we are off very soon for our weekend trip to Tresco. The build up has already begun with the successful purchase of new holiday socks last weekend. The weather however, looks pretty scary for our little airplane ride across from Land's End, just wondering if new holiday underwear might have been a wiser purchase. Just wonder if the venue might change to Penzance Tesco’s after all.
Just wondering if things are beginning to turn in our favour again, the signs are there I feel. If I can ignore IS and Ebola for a minute and look a bit closer to home, things are beginning to look a bit rosier. The nursery is looking promising, holidays are close and one of our long standing staff is moving into the cottage by the nursery gate which will help us both out, we get the added security and help and he can move out of Mum and Dad's place, win, win. On top of it all, after 44 years playing club hockey I scored my first hat-trick on Saturday, just hoping I don’t have to wait that long again.
Availability
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Things getting a bit quieter here now as the temperatures fall away. Just rushing round now trying to make the most of the remaining warmth. There is the usual autumnal burst of plant growth from all the perennials before things start going dormant. Always nice to see the heart of the young stock build up before the winter, ready for that early strong spring burst of growth and sales. Looking forward to that.
Relief all round as we got three more tunnels re-clad last week which just leaves one little one to do and we need to do some constructional repairs on that one before covering so that might take a while.
I’m now getting stuck into ordering young stock for potting next spring which is always an interesting exercise. On one hand I know the cash-flow is about to dive in the wrong direction along with the temperature so it feels like time to batten down the hatches. But in reality I really need to prize open my jar of optimism and assume we will sell some stock again when the days lengthen and with demand looking really strong for 2015 we are going to need plenty to sell. There is always that scary unknown factor of the weather to work into the equation, but hopefully we will get a good run at some point through the season to pull it all together.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the stock next season resplendent behind our new design of label. I’ve always been quite jealous of those nurseries big enough to run with their own bespoke labels creating a smart coordinated look, even if they might sometimes be a bit overpowering. Recent changes in digital printing means the size and cost of minimum print runs has come down, together with the ability to print our own short runs on site to the same design, which makes having our new look economically viable. The added bonus with our new labels is the really practical and innovative design providing so many extra benefits to us, the producer, and you, the customer. It all helps add to my excitement. It does take much!
Talking of excitement, we are off very soon for our weekend trip to Tresco. The build up has already begun with the successful purchase of new holiday socks last weekend. The weather however, looks pretty scary for our little airplane ride across from Land's End, just wondering if new holiday underwear might have been a wiser purchase. Just wonder if the venue might change to Penzance Tesco’s after all.
Just wondering if things are beginning to turn in our favour again, the signs are there I feel. If I can ignore IS and Ebola for a minute and look a bit closer to home, things are beginning to look a bit rosier. The nursery is looking promising, holidays are close and one of our long standing staff is moving into the cottage by the nursery gate which will help us both out, we get the added security and help and he can move out of Mum and Dad's place, win, win. On top of it all, after 44 years playing club hockey I scored my first hat-trick on Saturday, just hoping I don’t have to wait that long again.
Availability
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last few weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will try and pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 6 October 2014
Hairy Socks
Good morning all.
Very busy week, squeezed on 3 more tunnel covers before the weather turned and shipped out plenty of lovely plants. Lots of boxes here now, all spaced out and stacked up to dry out before winter storage. We just have a few more to hoover up, so if you find any more needing collection do drop me an email and I will add you to the list. I know we still have a couple of pick- ups in the Wiltshire direction as well as some towards London.
Last week’s surprise expenditure completed its third instalment with an odd incident when the plastic mounting bracket that holds our little Dosatron diluter on it's trolley broke while no one was on site, unfortunately it then landed on its hose tail and snapped it off so had to buy two specialist new parts. They were delivered brilliantly quickly via Fargro only for me to discover on reassembly that there was a hairline fracture of the top casing as well. Fiddle de dee!
Wood store full of old conifer hedge trunks all seasoned, cut, split and ready for winter, just the nursery store to fill now and there is plenty of scrap wood to fill that too. Chimney swept too, bring it on. Keep those oil deliveries down. Wind turbines have been a bit slow over the past couple of months in the good weather but at least our electric consumption continues to fall too which is good to see (wouldn’t know if we didn’t measure it. Dull but true).
Off to the shops to see the outside world today, very excited as I’ve got to do my holiday shopping (nearly out of hole-less socks, thought I might struggle through till Christmas but no such luck). Rock on.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well ready for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Very busy week, squeezed on 3 more tunnel covers before the weather turned and shipped out plenty of lovely plants. Lots of boxes here now, all spaced out and stacked up to dry out before winter storage. We just have a few more to hoover up, so if you find any more needing collection do drop me an email and I will add you to the list. I know we still have a couple of pick- ups in the Wiltshire direction as well as some towards London.
Last week’s surprise expenditure completed its third instalment with an odd incident when the plastic mounting bracket that holds our little Dosatron diluter on it's trolley broke while no one was on site, unfortunately it then landed on its hose tail and snapped it off so had to buy two specialist new parts. They were delivered brilliantly quickly via Fargro only for me to discover on reassembly that there was a hairline fracture of the top casing as well. Fiddle de dee!
Wood store full of old conifer hedge trunks all seasoned, cut, split and ready for winter, just the nursery store to fill now and there is plenty of scrap wood to fill that too. Chimney swept too, bring it on. Keep those oil deliveries down. Wind turbines have been a bit slow over the past couple of months in the good weather but at least our electric consumption continues to fall too which is good to see (wouldn’t know if we didn’t measure it. Dull but true).
Off to the shops to see the outside world today, very excited as I’ve got to do my holiday shopping (nearly out of hole-less socks, thought I might struggle through till Christmas but no such luck). Rock on.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well ready for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive solidly silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White (sold out for now) held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers), the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring and the narrow spotty leaved E.B. Anderson.
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 29 September 2014
Hairy cover up
Good morning all.
Sun is still out but the house martins have flown south now for their winter break. Looking forward to mine with a long weekend booked on Tresco. Or was that Tesco. Times are still tough.
Still have some winter interest stock, including lovely Asters and Hellebores, scooting off to new homes but the impending cash-flow lull is looming and it’s nearly time to batten down the hatches until sales start to pick up again in the New Year. Lots of winter projects pencilled in but all on a tight budget so lots of recycling and imagination on the cards.
One big change this winter will be the new colour perennial labels threaded on their bamboo skewers. The specially designed skewers are due in during October and the printers are busy preparing the set up for the bespoke coloured part. We have managed, ahead of schedule, to gather together the final list of plants for them to print and generated individual barcodes and QR codes for all varieties. So well done us! Now we just need to generate about 450 pages of plant info on the web pages so the QR codes actually show something when they come into use in the New Year.
We are hoping to develop a bit more water collection from some of the tunnels, but it’s a tricky thing to balance with the price of water still being fairly cheap and the water recycling installations not. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.The cash-flow took a bit of a beating this week with a couple of those sneaky bills coming in that you hope not to get. The routine checks on the forklift showed a worn bearing, no longer a standard available part of course, and they have had to take the truck away, more cost, to get done as they couldn’t get the pins out on site. Then the propagation area environmental control computer needed repair after it stopped holding on to all its settings when the power went off. One of those specialist bits of kit that needed the maker to come out and deal with. Just £8 for the replacement backup battery but £400 for labour and travel costs. The battery was a soldering job so I would have struggled to do it myself and the engineer did do several other checks of the attached kit and resetting of data but still a bit of a bitter pill.
What did go brilliantly this week was the recovering of 3 tunnels which got damaged and temporarily repaired after last winter’s storms. I ordered 7 sheets late the previous week which arrived very promptly, thanks to Fargro & XL Horticulture. We then had one very still day on which we covered two and a short window the following morning when we slipped over another. The second day was touch and go as the wind picked up as soon as we got the sheet over. It can get pretty tense when that happens, as a sheet 50m x 11.1m with the wind under it is a very powerful thing. However in favourable conditions, once the cover is over, it only takes 4 of us about an hour or so to fix it down but as so often it’s the preparation and tidying up t hat takes most time. The warmth in the air meant all three are on nice and tight and I am hoping we get another couple of warm still days in the coming week when we can get the rest done. That would be quite a relief going into the winter.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue & Snowsprite. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers) and the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sun is still out but the house martins have flown south now for their winter break. Looking forward to mine with a long weekend booked on Tresco. Or was that Tesco. Times are still tough.
Still have some winter interest stock, including lovely Asters and Hellebores, scooting off to new homes but the impending cash-flow lull is looming and it’s nearly time to batten down the hatches until sales start to pick up again in the New Year. Lots of winter projects pencilled in but all on a tight budget so lots of recycling and imagination on the cards.
One big change this winter will be the new colour perennial labels threaded on their bamboo skewers. The specially designed skewers are due in during October and the printers are busy preparing the set up for the bespoke coloured part. We have managed, ahead of schedule, to gather together the final list of plants for them to print and generated individual barcodes and QR codes for all varieties. So well done us! Now we just need to generate about 450 pages of plant info on the web pages so the QR codes actually show something when they come into use in the New Year.
We are hoping to develop a bit more water collection from some of the tunnels, but it’s a tricky thing to balance with the price of water still being fairly cheap and the water recycling installations not. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.The cash-flow took a bit of a beating this week with a couple of those sneaky bills coming in that you hope not to get. The routine checks on the forklift showed a worn bearing, no longer a standard available part of course, and they have had to take the truck away, more cost, to get done as they couldn’t get the pins out on site. Then the propagation area environmental control computer needed repair after it stopped holding on to all its settings when the power went off. One of those specialist bits of kit that needed the maker to come out and deal with. Just £8 for the replacement backup battery but £400 for labour and travel costs. The battery was a soldering job so I would have struggled to do it myself and the engineer did do several other checks of the attached kit and resetting of data but still a bit of a bitter pill.
What did go brilliantly this week was the recovering of 3 tunnels which got damaged and temporarily repaired after last winter’s storms. I ordered 7 sheets late the previous week which arrived very promptly, thanks to Fargro & XL Horticulture. We then had one very still day on which we covered two and a short window the following morning when we slipped over another. The second day was touch and go as the wind picked up as soon as we got the sheet over. It can get pretty tense when that happens, as a sheet 50m x 11.1m with the wind under it is a very powerful thing. However in favourable conditions, once the cover is over, it only takes 4 of us about an hour or so to fix it down but as so often it’s the preparation and tidying up t hat takes most time. The warmth in the air meant all three are on nice and tight and I am hoping we get another couple of warm still days in the coming week when we can get the rest done. That would be quite a relief going into the winter.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue & Snowsprite. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts. Evergreen Bergenia’s are now making a tidy pot ready to produce their early spring colours. Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of coloured foliage.
Another winter interest group are the Pulmonaria’s. We have extended the range this winter with the white edged leaves of David Ward (pink flowers) and the pretty white spring flowers of Sissinghusrt White held above white spotted leaves. The regular stunners are still there, Blue Ensign (pale leaves but the best blue flowers) and the fabulously variegated/white blotched leaves of Opal with its lovely delightful pale blue flower in spring.
Wooden Box Collections
We have had a really good round up of trays over the last couple of weeks but if anyone still has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 22 September 2014
Hairy and Ancient
Good morning all
Last gasp of summer weather lingers on, along with a few House Martins that are still flying around the house.
Next spring’s Erysimum’s got potted this week and they are looking really strong. The policy of slipping the little modules into a larger one for a few weeks certainly seems to be paying off at the moment. Let’s hope the winter isn’t too harsh and the buds appear nice and early again to get those early sales going. We always grow them hard to get a really strong plant and give them plenty of room by double spacing them from the start. They seem to respond well and always look great among the other early starters. The early bulbs are sat waiting to grow away as well, out of reach of the mice in their pots on trolleys until they start shooting. It certainly fooled the little tykes last year and hopefully will again.
We watched the second of the BBC2 Stonehenge programmes last week which, like the first, was a bit hit and miss. The overall impression of a big, complex and important landscape rather than simply a circle of stones was great and something not always appreciated by the casual visitor. Just a bit disappointing was the lack of detail again and a few rather odd distractions. The oddest divulgence was the story behind the little gold studs found back in the 19th century in one of the nearby Bronze-age barrows. They found 140,000 tiny studs (1mm x 0.2mm) originally fitted into a dagger handle. This was slightly old news but still an astonishing find. They then seemed to suggest they had been made by cutting ultra thin shavings of gold twisted together by children (good eye sight) and all based on the experience of a modern artist who made miniature jewellery under a microscope. On screen, even to a pleb like me, it looked a dubious theory but as soon as the programme finished I had an irate call from our tame arcaeologist Brian who was, in a previous life, a research fellow metallurgist. Apparently you make studs like this from ‘drawing out’ metal from a fatter piece, a bit like making Blackpool rock with the lettering in the middle. Still a skilled job but relatively simple. Apparently you can even see the striations on the studs where it was pulled through a sizing hole. I know there is quite a bit of fanciful thinking in archaeology already, but at least it is usually built on using the evidence in front of them. Come on BBC we’d like to believe what you tell us in a documentary.My archaeological education took another step forward this week with the suggestion that the three broken bits of iron pyrite nodules I pulled out of the base of a small pit dissected by a trench on the farm, could be a deliberate deposit and may have been used as part of a fire-lighting kit in ancient times. This kit is now rusting on the kitchen table while I think of a good home for it. Caroline got the star find in the trench with a possible worked piece of slate. For the first time I have reported the finds to the local Portable Antiquities lady, on Brian’s advice, and sent a couple of images so they can at least identify the finds and record the locations for their records, if they so desire. Images below, just in case you are as sad as me.
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A week of learning new stuff was unfortunately brought to a close on Friday with the demise of one of our local Sparrowhawks. We found a bird in very poor health, managed to pick it up, cage it and drop it off at the brilliant local Hawk Conservancy near Andover where they have a bird hospital as well as a fantastic venue for showing off birds of prey. We had assumed injury by a car or similar as its beak area was a bit messy but it turned out to be an infection called Frounce which can be picked up from pigeons and finches. It affects the throat area and can kill in just a few days. If the bird is ill enough to get caught then it is often too far gone for treatment as was the case with our bird. Still, we had a go and the hospital was pleased with the donation we made.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Last gasp of summer weather lingers on, along with a few House Martins that are still flying around the house.
Next spring’s Erysimum’s got potted this week and they are looking really strong. The policy of slipping the little modules into a larger one for a few weeks certainly seems to be paying off at the moment. Let’s hope the winter isn’t too harsh and the buds appear nice and early again to get those early sales going. We always grow them hard to get a really strong plant and give them plenty of room by double spacing them from the start. They seem to respond well and always look great among the other early starters. The early bulbs are sat waiting to grow away as well, out of reach of the mice in their pots on trolleys until they start shooting. It certainly fooled the little tykes last year and hopefully will again.
We watched the second of the BBC2 Stonehenge programmes last week which, like the first, was a bit hit and miss. The overall impression of a big, complex and important landscape rather than simply a circle of stones was great and something not always appreciated by the casual visitor. Just a bit disappointing was the lack of detail again and a few rather odd distractions. The oddest divulgence was the story behind the little gold studs found back in the 19th century in one of the nearby Bronze-age barrows. They found 140,000 tiny studs (1mm x 0.2mm) originally fitted into a dagger handle. This was slightly old news but still an astonishing find. They then seemed to suggest they had been made by cutting ultra thin shavings of gold twisted together by children (good eye sight) and all based on the experience of a modern artist who made miniature jewellery under a microscope. On screen, even to a pleb like me, it looked a dubious theory but as soon as the programme finished I had an irate call from our tame arcaeologist Brian who was, in a previous life, a research fellow metallurgist. Apparently you make studs like this from ‘drawing out’ metal from a fatter piece, a bit like making Blackpool rock with the lettering in the middle. Still a skilled job but relatively simple. Apparently you can even see the striations on the studs where it was pulled through a sizing hole. I know there is quite a bit of fanciful thinking in archaeology already, but at least it is usually built on using the evidence in front of them. Come on BBC we’d like to believe what you tell us in a documentary.My archaeological education took another step forward this week with the suggestion that the three broken bits of iron pyrite nodules I pulled out of the base of a small pit dissected by a trench on the farm, could be a deliberate deposit and may have been used as part of a fire-lighting kit in ancient times. This kit is now rusting on the kitchen table while I think of a good home for it. Caroline got the star find in the trench with a possible worked piece of slate. For the first time I have reported the finds to the local Portable Antiquities lady, on Brian’s advice, and sent a couple of images so they can at least identify the finds and record the locations for their records, if they so desire. Images below, just in case you are as sad as me.
A week of learning new stuff was unfortunately brought to a close on Friday with the demise of one of our local Sparrowhawks. We found a bird in very poor health, managed to pick it up, cage it and drop it off at the brilliant local Hawk Conservancy near Andover where they have a bird hospital as well as a fantastic venue for showing off birds of prey. We had assumed injury by a car or similar as its beak area was a bit messy but it turned out to be an infection called Frounce which can be picked up from pigeons and finches. It affects the throat area and can kill in just a few days. If the bird is ill enough to get caught then it is often too far gone for treatment as was the case with our bird. Still, we had a go and the hospital was pleased with the donation we made.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters are showing bud and flower and looking great. Particularly good are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Flowers showing on the Erodium Bishops form which never seems to stop once it starts.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 15 September 2014
Shallow and Hairy
Morning All,
Another very pleasant week’s weather and next week looks ok too. Still warm but possible damp later. At least the breeze has picked up a bit, those turbines have been a bit too stationary for my liking over the last couple of weeks. A nice gentle breeze is all I ask and that meter ticks over very nicely.
My 5 days of driver training is complete and my faith in humanity restored after a much more encouraging last day. We did nutrition and stress on the last day. Just got started on the nutrition part as the burger van pulled in to the training yard car park at 9.00 and we all had a break dashed out and refueled! I took a purely observational role. Our last batch of predators were released this week and our third late summer/autumn packets of mixed nematodes are in the fridge awaiting application. I’m sure there will be the odd vine weevil that eludes them but we have seen a really big reduction in adults spotted around the nursery this summer with hardly any damage or adults seen at all. Last winter’s mild temperatures could have easily seen a population explosion with the adults overwintering well and starting egg laying early as well as it being a good winter for larvae survival, all potentially swelling the summer populations. The combination of efficient and multiple applications (6 in total this year) seems to be a much more effective strategy than the fungal spores previously used. Now we have fined tuned the process over this year, next year’s control could be really effective with low over wintered populations and well timed controls. One crop that is very attractive to the vine weevil is strawberry’s and I am told there are fruit growers who are now applying lower levels of mixed nematodes throughout the summer to cover the whole weevil egg laying period so perhaps this might be another strategy worth taking a look at. Things never stand still.Nice to see the BBC catching up with the latest Stonehenge stuff this week (another programme on next week). Bit disappointed with the lack of specific information, too much wishy washy CGI stone-age hunting and riding over fields on buggies with electric kit on for my liking, but it did give a nice glimpse of the larger Stonehenge landscape. ‘My’ Blick Mead Spring site just outside Amesbury got a nice spot with the archaeologist showing the meseolithic layers in the soil and the magenta coloured flint (rare algae taint from one of the springs). But lots of really important info was either not given or edited out for the sake of entertainment, I felt it missed out on an opportunity to get some more in-depth info out there so we can try and understand things better ourselves rather than just be jollied along through the evening. Perhaps indicative of a general assumption that we need short little nuggets of excitement to keep us interested but best not to let us know too much. After a bit it all gets a bit shallow and boring doesn’t it? A bit like instant gardening perhaps, only buying things in bud and flower rather limits the experience. Quick get me an expensive caffeine drink and a slab of cake before I get bored.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Showing colour particularly well are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Helenium’s seem to be the in plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Another very pleasant week’s weather and next week looks ok too. Still warm but possible damp later. At least the breeze has picked up a bit, those turbines have been a bit too stationary for my liking over the last couple of weeks. A nice gentle breeze is all I ask and that meter ticks over very nicely.
My 5 days of driver training is complete and my faith in humanity restored after a much more encouraging last day. We did nutrition and stress on the last day. Just got started on the nutrition part as the burger van pulled in to the training yard car park at 9.00 and we all had a break dashed out and refueled! I took a purely observational role. Our last batch of predators were released this week and our third late summer/autumn packets of mixed nematodes are in the fridge awaiting application. I’m sure there will be the odd vine weevil that eludes them but we have seen a really big reduction in adults spotted around the nursery this summer with hardly any damage or adults seen at all. Last winter’s mild temperatures could have easily seen a population explosion with the adults overwintering well and starting egg laying early as well as it being a good winter for larvae survival, all potentially swelling the summer populations. The combination of efficient and multiple applications (6 in total this year) seems to be a much more effective strategy than the fungal spores previously used. Now we have fined tuned the process over this year, next year’s control could be really effective with low over wintered populations and well timed controls. One crop that is very attractive to the vine weevil is strawberry’s and I am told there are fruit growers who are now applying lower levels of mixed nematodes throughout the summer to cover the whole weevil egg laying period so perhaps this might be another strategy worth taking a look at. Things never stand still.Nice to see the BBC catching up with the latest Stonehenge stuff this week (another programme on next week). Bit disappointed with the lack of specific information, too much wishy washy CGI stone-age hunting and riding over fields on buggies with electric kit on for my liking, but it did give a nice glimpse of the larger Stonehenge landscape. ‘My’ Blick Mead Spring site just outside Amesbury got a nice spot with the archaeologist showing the meseolithic layers in the soil and the magenta coloured flint (rare algae taint from one of the springs). But lots of really important info was either not given or edited out for the sake of entertainment, I felt it missed out on an opportunity to get some more in-depth info out there so we can try and understand things better ourselves rather than just be jollied along through the evening. Perhaps indicative of a general assumption that we need short little nuggets of excitement to keep us interested but best not to let us know too much. After a bit it all gets a bit shallow and boring doesn’t it? A bit like instant gardening perhaps, only buying things in bud and flower rather limits the experience. Quick get me an expensive caffeine drink and a slab of cake before I get bored.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Showing colour particularly well are Rosenwitchel, Starlight, Lady in Blue and Snowsprite.
Helenium’s seem to be the in plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely.
Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 8 September 2014
To all you lovely Hairy people
Good morning all.
A nice bit of steady weather to get a few more plants sold and get a strong spurt of growth on the new potting getting them well prepared for the early spring sales bonanza. There are a few more new varieties again for the new season which always fills me with hope for exciting sales uptakes and by then we will have our new labels too which should give a real boost to the presentation of the plants.
It still surprises me that after 30 years we find new things each season to take things on to another level, and these labels with their incorporated bamboo skewers should be another leap forward in presentation and practicality for everyone. We have even managed to get sheets of matching blanks labels made so we can print our own near identical extras where needed. Although the costs look very competitive to the bog standard label offering, I am getting slightly nervous about the little extras I have added like individual variety barcodes and the QR codes that will be on the label backs. We are going to have to create a lot of specific on-line info this winter to back it all up as well as changing all the nursery software and paperwork to ensure things run nice and smoothly for everyone. Luckily I don’t get out much so I can devote all those long dark evenings to cussing at computers and their programs which means all that extra development is free. It’s always good to remember your own value.
Quiet weekend after the excitement of Crawleyfest last Saturday. It did turn out to be a fairly exclusive event with a sell out 500 pre-booked £5 ticket, so a good showing and hopefully they made a nice lot of money for the cricket team. Unfortunately due perhaps to not moving in the right circles we got left off the invitation list hence not knowing anything about it until the organiser popped in to collect his plant donation the day before. We did pop in during the afternoon to make further donations to the bar and ace cake van but missed out on the bands. The master stroke of the event was the beer tent, I can definitely recommend a pint or two of a local brew to make a fete pass very pleasantly.
Only one more day of driver CPC training to go. Had a rubbish session this week, learnt nothing and got pretty disillusioned with the outside world after two ‘over enthusiastic’ truckers dominated the day. A display of all the worst aspects of a ‘male’ trucker you could imagine, and some I couldn’t, all put on show. It was a case of heads down to get through the day and qualify as being trained, without saying anything that might mean getting hit or ridiculed. Difficult to believe there was a trainer present. There was no physical threat on the day but the content indicated it was part of their life along with a lot of other nasty stuff. It does make you appreciate what you have at home and at work when you get out, which is a sort of positive outcome!
Well done all you lovely people out there, we will win out in the end, keep it up.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Helenium’s seem to be the 'in' plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.
We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We
have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
We have a great range of good looking very chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A nice bit of steady weather to get a few more plants sold and get a strong spurt of growth on the new potting getting them well prepared for the early spring sales bonanza. There are a few more new varieties again for the new season which always fills me with hope for exciting sales uptakes and by then we will have our new labels too which should give a real boost to the presentation of the plants.
It still surprises me that after 30 years we find new things each season to take things on to another level, and these labels with their incorporated bamboo skewers should be another leap forward in presentation and practicality for everyone. We have even managed to get sheets of matching blanks labels made so we can print our own near identical extras where needed. Although the costs look very competitive to the bog standard label offering, I am getting slightly nervous about the little extras I have added like individual variety barcodes and the QR codes that will be on the label backs. We are going to have to create a lot of specific on-line info this winter to back it all up as well as changing all the nursery software and paperwork to ensure things run nice and smoothly for everyone. Luckily I don’t get out much so I can devote all those long dark evenings to cussing at computers and their programs which means all that extra development is free. It’s always good to remember your own value.
Quiet weekend after the excitement of Crawleyfest last Saturday. It did turn out to be a fairly exclusive event with a sell out 500 pre-booked £5 ticket, so a good showing and hopefully they made a nice lot of money for the cricket team. Unfortunately due perhaps to not moving in the right circles we got left off the invitation list hence not knowing anything about it until the organiser popped in to collect his plant donation the day before. We did pop in during the afternoon to make further donations to the bar and ace cake van but missed out on the bands. The master stroke of the event was the beer tent, I can definitely recommend a pint or two of a local brew to make a fete pass very pleasantly.
Only one more day of driver CPC training to go. Had a rubbish session this week, learnt nothing and got pretty disillusioned with the outside world after two ‘over enthusiastic’ truckers dominated the day. A display of all the worst aspects of a ‘male’ trucker you could imagine, and some I couldn’t, all put on show. It was a case of heads down to get through the day and qualify as being trained, without saying anything that might mean getting hit or ridiculed. Difficult to believe there was a trainer present. There was no physical threat on the day but the content indicated it was part of their life along with a lot of other nasty stuff. It does make you appreciate what you have at home and at work when you get out, which is a sort of positive outcome!
Well done all you lovely people out there, we will win out in the end, keep it up.
Availability
Fresh stock is growing well and the range is picking up again for the autumn surge!
Asters just beginning to show bud and the first occasional flower and looking great. Helenium’s seem to be the 'in' plant at the moment, featuring a lot in the papers and on the telly over the last couple of weeks.
We have a few varieties at the moment growing away nicely. Hellebourus are just starting to come ready with a few new additions to the range. We are trying a new H. orientalis selection called Crown Dark Purple which is reported to flower after its first winter, it is certainly coming on nicely at the moment. We
have a few H. niger Praecox to try out and three great new H. viridus varieties which are looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver & Rose’ has attractive silvered foliage, ‘White Green’ has deep green leaves with strong cream veining, and ‘Rose Green’ has a more glaucous green leaf with pretty flush of pink in the stems and some leaf veining. Nice short varieties looking enthusiastic in their pots.
We have a great range of good looking very chunky Agapanthus we are producing for the first time this summer.
Wooden Box Collections
If anyone has any of our wooden boxes ready for collection please do drop us an email and we will pop in and retrieve them over the next few weeks. We can then prepare ourselves for some winter whittling and repairs. Thanks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
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