We haven't posted much over the past few weeks due to being so busy. This is our busiest time, both for growing and for receiving orders. We dispatch orders every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (we don't dispatch later in the week to avoid plants being held up in transit over the weekend), and we are currently dispatching most orders with 7-8 days.
Sadly we've had to turn down a request to provide Dianthus for a well known gardening television program this week, because we don't have many available at this time of year. Dianthus only grow well when the weather warms up about this time of year, so we can only start to propagate them about now. They will start to become available again over the next few weeks.
Fortunately we have lots of other plants available for our customers, and at this time of year, most plants are growing quickly and we update the stock levels on the website as frequently as possible. If you are looking for a particular plant which is currently out of stock, it's worth adding your email address to the 'Notify me' box on the relevant plant page and you'll receive an automatic email when its available again.
We continue to add new plants to our range, and this week we have added a couple of British native wildflowers, the wonderful Chocolate Cosmos (yes, the flowers really smell strongly of chocolate) and a few new perennial Victorian violas, to name a few: https://shireplants.co.uk/all-plants/?sort=newest
We are still experiencing overnight frosts, but the temperature isn't sinking below zero, which is a relief as it means we are able to move plants out of the polytunnels as they become ready. This frees up much needed space as we pot up rooted cuttings and seedlings which are bursting out of the greenhouses.
This coming week will see us applying nematodes to control slugs and vine weevils (this is a natural defence and enables us to be chemical free when it comes to pest control). We will also be watering, watering and watering as we haven't had rain for two weeks and there's no sign of it in the forecast for the next two. Plus much potting, weeding and packing of orders.
Until the next update, happy gardening!
