Seasons Greetings to all.
Just a quick note to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and jolly New Year.
No list this week as we are hoping to have a quiet few days over the next couple of weeks while we have a catch up and try to get ready for 2015. However you may have already noticed the our extra email Christmas message which is something I put together this week. It is actually the image and text from our card we sent out earlier this week to a few special people who have looked after us in 2014, usually by sending us some dosh after we sent them some lovely hairy stuff. It’s a system that just about keeps us afloat! If you feel ‘special’ but didn’t get a card, please accept my apologies, resources are limited, you can always print it off and experience that warming glow yourself. Bonkersly busy last week getting stuff lined up for the coming season. More colour label preparations, new printing plates for the herb wooden labels ordered, header board blanks ordered, and a new tray liner being sorted out, of which more news in the New Year. More driver training being organised (a free one to one, eco-driving session for each of the van drivers), tree decorated and photographed, Christmas cards designed and made, 2015 catalogue started and new sets of back-up memory sticks put into use (back-up, back-up, back-up). We lost a bit of time on Thursday with the staff Christmas lunch at ‘The Plough’ in Sparsholt which was fantastic, definitely a level above ‘pub grub’. I can certainly recommend them as a good meal out for anyone close to us.
I hope you all have a lovely break and a relaxing time (don’t forget one man’s stress is another’s excitement). We will be in touch again in the New Year, as soon as I can think of something to say.
PS We are here until the 24th if anyone desperately needs to contact us, we will pop in and check emails etc on and off over the break when we are doing our other daily checks. Back to full capacity on Monday 5th.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 22 December 2014
Monday, 15 December 2014
Hairy Decorations!
Good morning all.
Hope those till bells are ringing and those Christmas trees flying out of the door. That will hopefully release a cash flood and get us all in the mood for a big sales push on plants as soon as the weather smiles on us all. We all live in hope.
Getting quite excited here with the dawn of a new hairy labelling era creeping up on us, the bamboo skewers are here, the blank sheets of ‘new shape’ labels arrived this week for those extra varieties that we will print ourselves, the confirmation of printing (and cost, ouch) of the Floramedia ‘new shape’ labels arrived and we are well underway with setting up all the new picture formats to fit on those blank label sheets. We have even put together the next label order for the early summer. That’s confidence for you. The matching of our home printed labels with the Floramedia ones should make such a difference in presentation impact. Last year we had a fantastic range of super stock with propagation material coming from more varied sources, but we had at least 6 different label designs decorating them which was ok but perhaps a bit disjointed at times. Watch out 2015 coordination is coming to town, well to labelling anyway!
I am going to warn you now that when we get into 2015 I don’t want to see any of the new management catch phrases popping up. Apparently the latest couple are ‘derisking’ and ‘unbuying’. I know there has been quite a bit of this going on over the last 2 or 3 years, but I hadn’t actually heard the terms for it before. They are pretty self explanatory but just in case you are as slow on the uptake as me, ‘derisking’ is not ordering or buying any stock and ‘unbuying’ is cancelling orders or sending stuff back after delivery. Now I know we all have our jobs to keep but let’s get a bit of empathy going for the plant suppliers,who take huge risks growing their crops for very marginal or non-existent return. We all have to shoulder some element of risk in selling stuff, isn't that what makes commercial enterprises prosper in the longer term? Shove all the risk onto one level and it will all collapse. Growers currently struggle to find the motivation to be innovative and forward thinking when there is not the commitment and sensible thinking in place further up the line. Is there something wrong with working together for all our mutual benefit and is short term bullying really such a positive tactic? There is a New Year round the corner let’s work together and make it a good one.
Must get off and decorate the tree before I run out of weekend. Great decorations in Waitrose I noticed, all very tasteful, simple corrugated card cut-outs. Someone had thought about it hard at an early stage, a combination of sustainability, style, simplicity, value, image, practicality and christmasyness. Well done them, you can do it all, if you believe. I did make a point of letting a member of staff know of my approval, ‘Nutter On The Bus’ aisle 6!
Availability
If the weather holds off getting too wintery we should have an expanding range looking good going into early 2015. The new labels are due in week commencing the 19th January so the complete new refreshed display will be ready for then, if any brave souls want to get started on their perennial displays.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering. Even the ever popular Bowles Mauve has good bud appearing.
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. There were 3 great new H. viridus varieties looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ and ‘Rose Green’ have sold out but ‘White Green’ with its deep green leaves with strong cream veining is still looking great. A nice short variety with the odd flower shoot appearing and looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Hope those till bells are ringing and those Christmas trees flying out of the door. That will hopefully release a cash flood and get us all in the mood for a big sales push on plants as soon as the weather smiles on us all. We all live in hope.
Getting quite excited here with the dawn of a new hairy labelling era creeping up on us, the bamboo skewers are here, the blank sheets of ‘new shape’ labels arrived this week for those extra varieties that we will print ourselves, the confirmation of printing (and cost, ouch) of the Floramedia ‘new shape’ labels arrived and we are well underway with setting up all the new picture formats to fit on those blank label sheets. We have even put together the next label order for the early summer. That’s confidence for you. The matching of our home printed labels with the Floramedia ones should make such a difference in presentation impact. Last year we had a fantastic range of super stock with propagation material coming from more varied sources, but we had at least 6 different label designs decorating them which was ok but perhaps a bit disjointed at times. Watch out 2015 coordination is coming to town, well to labelling anyway!
I am going to warn you now that when we get into 2015 I don’t want to see any of the new management catch phrases popping up. Apparently the latest couple are ‘derisking’ and ‘unbuying’. I know there has been quite a bit of this going on over the last 2 or 3 years, but I hadn’t actually heard the terms for it before. They are pretty self explanatory but just in case you are as slow on the uptake as me, ‘derisking’ is not ordering or buying any stock and ‘unbuying’ is cancelling orders or sending stuff back after delivery. Now I know we all have our jobs to keep but let’s get a bit of empathy going for the plant suppliers,who take huge risks growing their crops for very marginal or non-existent return. We all have to shoulder some element of risk in selling stuff, isn't that what makes commercial enterprises prosper in the longer term? Shove all the risk onto one level and it will all collapse. Growers currently struggle to find the motivation to be innovative and forward thinking when there is not the commitment and sensible thinking in place further up the line. Is there something wrong with working together for all our mutual benefit and is short term bullying really such a positive tactic? There is a New Year round the corner let’s work together and make it a good one.
Must get off and decorate the tree before I run out of weekend. Great decorations in Waitrose I noticed, all very tasteful, simple corrugated card cut-outs. Someone had thought about it hard at an early stage, a combination of sustainability, style, simplicity, value, image, practicality and christmasyness. Well done them, you can do it all, if you believe. I did make a point of letting a member of staff know of my approval, ‘Nutter On The Bus’ aisle 6!
Availability
If the weather holds off getting too wintery we should have an expanding range looking good going into early 2015. The new labels are due in week commencing the 19th January so the complete new refreshed display will be ready for then, if any brave souls want to get started on their perennial displays.
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering. Even the ever popular Bowles Mauve has good bud appearing.
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. There were 3 great new H. viridus varieties looking very smart and distinctly different from each other. ‘Silver and Rose’ and ‘Rose Green’ have sold out but ‘White Green’ with its deep green leaves with strong cream veining is still looking great. A nice short variety with the odd flower shoot appearing and looking enthusiastic in their pots. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 8 December 2014
Hairy Overload
Good morning all.
Critical week for Christmas tree sales I’m sure. The weather here has just perked up and yesterday was fine, the colder snap and early retail consumer activity seems to have got Christmas sales moving. Hopefully not everyone has run out of money yet and those Christmas specials all get sold. I must admit we manage to avoid the annual tree costs by redecorating my own homemade tree. The current model knocked up out of a bit of 2x2 and an old wooden venetian blind is still going strong and always attracts plenty of attention, despite it coming last in the village show craft section! I’m not bitter. I always like a bit of creative thought to go into Christmas, you can’t buy it all off the shelf. Paper chains are one of my favourites, memories of sticking gummed paper strips together as a kid were revisited when I made some new ones a few years ago. This time I upgraded to a more subtle version by cutting the strips into 4, 8 and even 16. The smallest size made little loops just big enough to go round my little-finger tip, it was a bit fiddly and took forever to make any length but the overall effect was very dinky and looks great on the tree. They have kept for years by storing in a biscuit tin, just watch out if you try it yourself, you will need the strips with gum/glue all over the back not just the ends. Get the kids on it , should keep them quiet for hours. I must get out more.
No time for decorating this week, Nearly all Tuesday disappeared with a trip to get a vehicle recall issue sorted on the big van and a visit from the new bank manager to sort out the overdraft for the next year. Bit stressful as the years figures are vastly improved over the previous two disastrous seasons but still not a pretty sight. Luckily he could see the positive side and assuming he can get it all approved by his bosses we should be able to squeeze through another winter until the cash starts appearing again.
Wednesday was a very educational day with a trip to Lowaters nursery for an IPPS workshop on compost tea, biological controls and the latest pesticide updates. The sheer volume of info was slightly mind numbing by the end of the day but life on the growing side of things looks like getting increasingly challenging as more chemicals are lost (usually because growers don’t buy enough) and we try and maintain quality by nurturing more of natures assets to combat the weeds, pests and diseases. We are certainly going to have a go ourselves at extending our natural armoury to get a better balance and reduce even further our use of the occasional pesticide. It is an area with a rather ‘muck & magic’ feel but hearing from different grower experiences and advisors at the workshop has pushed me over the edge. It appears not to be a magic bullet to cure everything but it more of a general protectorant and tonic with combined benefits of higher disease and pest resistance and lower nutritional demand from artificial fertilisers. The large variety of ‘good biology’ growing in the tea which we brew up on site for a day or two before applying to the crops, gives it the broad spectrum of benefits. We already have a lot of the infrastructure in place to accommodate this new development so hopefully we can get it going quite easily. Thursday was another mind blower, having to proof read again 355 colour label designs. Then Friday was a rodent control seminar where I learnt some scary stuff. Brown rats can deform their skulls to enable them to get through a 13mm yes that’s not a typo, 13mm, hole, and mice 6mm! Mice are inquisitive but rats are neophobic (afraid of new things). So snappy traps are good for mice who will investigate them but with rats it is best to leave any traps unsprung for a week until they get used to them and then set them. Rats can breed at just 3 months old, 9 per litter, mice 3 weeks and 6 per litter. Rats can jump 1 metre vertically and drop 15m unharmed. Poor sight but excellent smell, touch and hearing. They will get used to deterrents like sonic devices so only use then intermittently to keep up the strangeness factor. That’s me done brain full.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve.
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.
There are 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. Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Critical week for Christmas tree sales I’m sure. The weather here has just perked up and yesterday was fine, the colder snap and early retail consumer activity seems to have got Christmas sales moving. Hopefully not everyone has run out of money yet and those Christmas specials all get sold. I must admit we manage to avoid the annual tree costs by redecorating my own homemade tree. The current model knocked up out of a bit of 2x2 and an old wooden venetian blind is still going strong and always attracts plenty of attention, despite it coming last in the village show craft section! I’m not bitter. I always like a bit of creative thought to go into Christmas, you can’t buy it all off the shelf. Paper chains are one of my favourites, memories of sticking gummed paper strips together as a kid were revisited when I made some new ones a few years ago. This time I upgraded to a more subtle version by cutting the strips into 4, 8 and even 16. The smallest size made little loops just big enough to go round my little-finger tip, it was a bit fiddly and took forever to make any length but the overall effect was very dinky and looks great on the tree. They have kept for years by storing in a biscuit tin, just watch out if you try it yourself, you will need the strips with gum/glue all over the back not just the ends. Get the kids on it , should keep them quiet for hours. I must get out more.
No time for decorating this week, Nearly all Tuesday disappeared with a trip to get a vehicle recall issue sorted on the big van and a visit from the new bank manager to sort out the overdraft for the next year. Bit stressful as the years figures are vastly improved over the previous two disastrous seasons but still not a pretty sight. Luckily he could see the positive side and assuming he can get it all approved by his bosses we should be able to squeeze through another winter until the cash starts appearing again.
Wednesday was a very educational day with a trip to Lowaters nursery for an IPPS workshop on compost tea, biological controls and the latest pesticide updates. The sheer volume of info was slightly mind numbing by the end of the day but life on the growing side of things looks like getting increasingly challenging as more chemicals are lost (usually because growers don’t buy enough) and we try and maintain quality by nurturing more of natures assets to combat the weeds, pests and diseases. We are certainly going to have a go ourselves at extending our natural armoury to get a better balance and reduce even further our use of the occasional pesticide. It is an area with a rather ‘muck & magic’ feel but hearing from different grower experiences and advisors at the workshop has pushed me over the edge. It appears not to be a magic bullet to cure everything but it more of a general protectorant and tonic with combined benefits of higher disease and pest resistance and lower nutritional demand from artificial fertilisers. The large variety of ‘good biology’ growing in the tea which we brew up on site for a day or two before applying to the crops, gives it the broad spectrum of benefits. We already have a lot of the infrastructure in place to accommodate this new development so hopefully we can get it going quite easily. Thursday was another mind blower, having to proof read again 355 colour label designs. Then Friday was a rodent control seminar where I learnt some scary stuff. Brown rats can deform their skulls to enable them to get through a 13mm yes that’s not a typo, 13mm, hole, and mice 6mm! Mice are inquisitive but rats are neophobic (afraid of new things). So snappy traps are good for mice who will investigate them but with rats it is best to leave any traps unsprung for a week until they get used to them and then set them. Rats can breed at just 3 months old, 9 per litter, mice 3 weeks and 6 per litter. Rats can jump 1 metre vertically and drop 15m unharmed. Poor sight but excellent smell, touch and hearing. They will get used to deterrents like sonic devices so only use then intermittently to keep up the strangeness factor. That’s me done brain full.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve.
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.
There are 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. Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 1 December 2014
Clouded Yellow Sunday
Good morning all.
I’m not sure if I was the only one but I managed to get past Black Friday with my wallet unscathed? I can’t help but get rather anxious about the blatant promotion of unbridled spending and consumption. It might be to do with the fact that I have got so tight on access to cash over the last few years with things the way they are for the plant production industry, or possibly the combination of waste and deception that goes on within a lot of retailing these days. Let’s face it there are very few real bargains in promotional events, either they were over priced before, dodgy quality or it’s old stock/models. Add an extra 30+% to the retail price so we can knock it off later. There are some outlets I know Caroline never buys at full price because if you wait a week or two it will all be discounted by massive amounts, what sort of message of trust, service and loyalty does this give to the buying public when they start to see through it? Ikea and John Lewis seem to be able to manage their customer’s expectations with a more sustainable approach which I assume means steadier sales and more loyal and appreciative customers, a nice asset to have.
Last Thursday was my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) meeting. The usual mix of figures and trends to analyse and experiences to share, coupled with a large dose of irreverent Mickey taking and laughter. We all overcame the hurdle of having to admit that we were horticulturists and not making any money years ago, and it’s been downhill from then. There are very few meetings that we don’t come away with information or ideas on how to improve something, save some money, reduce our workload or lower our risk levels. It can be a shockingly open discussion but all the
more refreshing for it and much cheaper than a session at The Priory. I often wonder where we would be and how isolated we would feel without this support over the years, it’s a shame that not more people have the vision to see what a valuable exercise something like this can be. I do have an admission to make. I had said that we were going to put QR codes on our new bespoke labels but it looks like this won’t happen now. We had always been a bit worried about their practical application and just how much they would actually get used, but the cleverness of the codes is so attractive. The codes are easy enough to generate and print but the target of the codes was where we could have fallen down. We had started to create mobile friendly web pages for each variety with the dawning realisation that we couldn’t realistically create enough captivating content to provide that gripping or invaluable user experience. We were planning to load up our best pictures and plant info but it is so easy now, and just as quick, to Google search for info or images. We may still do a few limited codes and new webpages to give more detailed background on the pots and the nursery etc, but to try and compete with Google for content is a touch ambitious for us on our weeny scale. The nail in the coffin was a tale of a QR code being issued on a nursery info leaflet taken by many thousands of gardeners at big retail shows, resulting in only 12 website visits. For most people life is just too short unless you are after a very specific piece of individual information. One very useful use I heard about was putting QR codes on house sale boards, taking you straight to the estate agents page for that house. Promoting a sale through an efficient and detailed individual service.
Had a very pleasant flash back this week when I reached for a beer. While in St Ives a couple of weeks ago I saw my first Clouded Yellow butterfly. Stunning colour in flight, invisible when it lands. I only guessed it's name by the reports of sightings on the local birding websites and a quick Google image search provided the backup. Later the same day we spotted another in Hayle and just to prove all good things come in threes I spotted another in the off-license that evening. The third was actually a St Austell wheat beer called Clouded Yellow, but it was just as impressive. Brought one or two home, hence the flashback.
Almost as good as being on holiday again.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve. 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. There are 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.Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
I’m not sure if I was the only one but I managed to get past Black Friday with my wallet unscathed? I can’t help but get rather anxious about the blatant promotion of unbridled spending and consumption. It might be to do with the fact that I have got so tight on access to cash over the last few years with things the way they are for the plant production industry, or possibly the combination of waste and deception that goes on within a lot of retailing these days. Let’s face it there are very few real bargains in promotional events, either they were over priced before, dodgy quality or it’s old stock/models. Add an extra 30+% to the retail price so we can knock it off later. There are some outlets I know Caroline never buys at full price because if you wait a week or two it will all be discounted by massive amounts, what sort of message of trust, service and loyalty does this give to the buying public when they start to see through it? Ikea and John Lewis seem to be able to manage their customer’s expectations with a more sustainable approach which I assume means steadier sales and more loyal and appreciative customers, a nice asset to have.
Last Thursday was my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) meeting. The usual mix of figures and trends to analyse and experiences to share, coupled with a large dose of irreverent Mickey taking and laughter. We all overcame the hurdle of having to admit that we were horticulturists and not making any money years ago, and it’s been downhill from then. There are very few meetings that we don’t come away with information or ideas on how to improve something, save some money, reduce our workload or lower our risk levels. It can be a shockingly open discussion but all the
more refreshing for it and much cheaper than a session at The Priory. I often wonder where we would be and how isolated we would feel without this support over the years, it’s a shame that not more people have the vision to see what a valuable exercise something like this can be. I do have an admission to make. I had said that we were going to put QR codes on our new bespoke labels but it looks like this won’t happen now. We had always been a bit worried about their practical application and just how much they would actually get used, but the cleverness of the codes is so attractive. The codes are easy enough to generate and print but the target of the codes was where we could have fallen down. We had started to create mobile friendly web pages for each variety with the dawning realisation that we couldn’t realistically create enough captivating content to provide that gripping or invaluable user experience. We were planning to load up our best pictures and plant info but it is so easy now, and just as quick, to Google search for info or images. We may still do a few limited codes and new webpages to give more detailed background on the pots and the nursery etc, but to try and compete with Google for content is a touch ambitious for us on our weeny scale. The nail in the coffin was a tale of a QR code being issued on a nursery info leaflet taken by many thousands of gardeners at big retail shows, resulting in only 12 website visits. For most people life is just too short unless you are after a very specific piece of individual information. One very useful use I heard about was putting QR codes on house sale boards, taking you straight to the estate agents page for that house. Promoting a sale through an efficient and detailed individual service.
Had a very pleasant flash back this week when I reached for a beer. While in St Ives a couple of weeks ago I saw my first Clouded Yellow butterfly. Stunning colour in flight, invisible when it lands. I only guessed it's name by the reports of sightings on the local birding websites and a quick Google image search provided the backup. Later the same day we spotted another in Hayle and just to prove all good things come in threes I spotted another in the off-license that evening. The third was actually a St Austell wheat beer called Clouded Yellow, but it was just as impressive. Brought one or two home, hence the flashback.
Almost as good as being on holiday again.
Availability
Erysimum varieties are coming on stream already, beautifully bushy with the shades of crimson red on Red Jep already showing really well and even a flush of bud and a hint of colour on the very long flowering and hugely popular Bowles Mauve. 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. There are 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.Euphorbia’s and Ajuga’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 24 November 2014
I'm alright, Are you alright?
Good morning all.
A bit grey and damp today, but still nice to be home again after our fantastic Cornish break. I always envisage this being a really quiet time with sales dropping away, potting all done and just those tasks put off through the busy seasons to sort out in the run up to Christmas. Just the time for a break without too much hassle. Naturally things don’t always work out quite so well and a series of IT issues completely messed up our holiday preparation and our return too. I won’t bore you with the details but a combination of a hard drive failure in the main computer in the week before the break (close to a complete disaster, backup, backup, backup), followed on our return by a circuit board failure in the best printer and another DOS attack on the modem router (no or very intermittent internet for 3 days) The DOS attack came with a recommendation from our broadband supplier to fit a different modem which was of course followed by taking nearly two days to fit the ‘simple plug and play’ kit. A slightly complex computer and telephone IP address set up meant that with the new kit in place nothing could find anything else. Anyway big thanks to Widenet in Romsey for recovering the hard drive data, OKI for finding and hopefully mending the printer problem (luckily still just inside its 3 year warranty) and Joseph at Daisy Broadband who was one of very few helpful experts we got hold of. Suggesting we hand over the modem issues to our IT department is not much help as this is one businesses where IT is limited in its resources in just about every way imaginable.
Back to happier times in Cornwall. Brilliant break, too much delicious food, delightful company, more damp in the air than ideal but yet another valuable life enhancing experience. Last year it was rock solution basins and understanding how the Men-an-Tol (unusual prehistoric standing stones) got its hole, this year it was holy wells and birding psychology. The holy well bit was further investigation in our understanding the importance of springs to prehistoric people and their quite common conversion into Christian sites as time went by. We know how to have a good time! Do bear in mind it did involve some great walks and lovely pubs. The birding experience was probably more entertaining and satisfying with a couple of valuable life lessons. There was plenty of twitcher activity this year and consequently I suffered more than the usual degree of feelings of inadequacy being only a casual participant. Getting the book out to check stuff in public is just not cool, the smart phone and Google is less conspicuous, in fact almost invisible as everyone is always looking at their phones these days. More tricky is judgement on telescope use. It’s easy to look part of the set with reasonable binoculars but can I bring myself to set up my ‘Mighty Midget’ on its tripod next to the monster kit already on show. It’s a really nice ‘scope with good lenses and zoom but size wise it’s no beast. It was a mental battle I won in the end with a realisation that I couldn’t see without it and I’m getting too old to care now anyway. We had one very positive experience at high tide on Hayle Estuary one afternoon watching and listening to the massed ranks of waders and ducks pushed together by rising waters. They were all feeding and happily babbling away when it was pointed out what was going on at the social community level. The contented babbling was actually performing a valuable function and the conversation proceeded something like; ‘I’m alright, are you alright?’ answered with the same reply and question from their neighbour and so the reassuring conversation goes on. Then there may be a scare with the passing of a buzzard and the conversation changes to a more urgent message, they may take off for safety to wheel around and settle again moments later, gradually resuming the reassuring conversation again. The feel good factor of listening to those birds was a gentle reminder of how good reassurance feels. Silence followed by alarm calls is much less enjoyable than reassurance and alarm. The emergencies may be no different but the in between bits are so much more fulfilling.
I’m alright, are you all right? And may be a bit of you're alright, am I alright?
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. Sold out of white for the moment.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few still in flower.
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 & 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. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A bit grey and damp today, but still nice to be home again after our fantastic Cornish break. I always envisage this being a really quiet time with sales dropping away, potting all done and just those tasks put off through the busy seasons to sort out in the run up to Christmas. Just the time for a break without too much hassle. Naturally things don’t always work out quite so well and a series of IT issues completely messed up our holiday preparation and our return too. I won’t bore you with the details but a combination of a hard drive failure in the main computer in the week before the break (close to a complete disaster, backup, backup, backup), followed on our return by a circuit board failure in the best printer and another DOS attack on the modem router (no or very intermittent internet for 3 days) The DOS attack came with a recommendation from our broadband supplier to fit a different modem which was of course followed by taking nearly two days to fit the ‘simple plug and play’ kit. A slightly complex computer and telephone IP address set up meant that with the new kit in place nothing could find anything else. Anyway big thanks to Widenet in Romsey for recovering the hard drive data, OKI for finding and hopefully mending the printer problem (luckily still just inside its 3 year warranty) and Joseph at Daisy Broadband who was one of very few helpful experts we got hold of. Suggesting we hand over the modem issues to our IT department is not much help as this is one businesses where IT is limited in its resources in just about every way imaginable.
Back to happier times in Cornwall. Brilliant break, too much delicious food, delightful company, more damp in the air than ideal but yet another valuable life enhancing experience. Last year it was rock solution basins and understanding how the Men-an-Tol (unusual prehistoric standing stones) got its hole, this year it was holy wells and birding psychology. The holy well bit was further investigation in our understanding the importance of springs to prehistoric people and their quite common conversion into Christian sites as time went by. We know how to have a good time! Do bear in mind it did involve some great walks and lovely pubs. The birding experience was probably more entertaining and satisfying with a couple of valuable life lessons. There was plenty of twitcher activity this year and consequently I suffered more than the usual degree of feelings of inadequacy being only a casual participant. Getting the book out to check stuff in public is just not cool, the smart phone and Google is less conspicuous, in fact almost invisible as everyone is always looking at their phones these days. More tricky is judgement on telescope use. It’s easy to look part of the set with reasonable binoculars but can I bring myself to set up my ‘Mighty Midget’ on its tripod next to the monster kit already on show. It’s a really nice ‘scope with good lenses and zoom but size wise it’s no beast. It was a mental battle I won in the end with a realisation that I couldn’t see without it and I’m getting too old to care now anyway. We had one very positive experience at high tide on Hayle Estuary one afternoon watching and listening to the massed ranks of waders and ducks pushed together by rising waters. They were all feeding and happily babbling away when it was pointed out what was going on at the social community level. The contented babbling was actually performing a valuable function and the conversation proceeded something like; ‘I’m alright, are you alright?’ answered with the same reply and question from their neighbour and so the reassuring conversation goes on. Then there may be a scare with the passing of a buzzard and the conversation changes to a more urgent message, they may take off for safety to wheel around and settle again moments later, gradually resuming the reassuring conversation again. The feel good factor of listening to those birds was a gentle reminder of how good reassurance feels. Silence followed by alarm calls is much less enjoyable than reassurance and alarm. The emergencies may be no different but the in between bits are so much more fulfilling.
I’m alright, are you all right? And may be a bit of you're alright, am I alright?
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. Sold out of white for the moment.
We have several new Saxifraga urbium varieties coming out of the micro-prop lab of which we have a few still in flower.
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 & 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. Euphorbia’s looking smart, nice pot full’s of foliage.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 27 October 2014
Hairy Crossing
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
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, 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
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