What an incredible summer this is turning out to be!!

This week at the nursery has seen temperatures ranging from 15c to 23C – accompanied by 40mph winds – torrential rain and dust-storms!!  And they say that there is never a dull moment on the weather front!!

Life on a tree nursery is always interesting when it is windy – and this is the third Friday in a row that has seen wind speeds in excess of 40mph!  Put this together with 20-30ft tall trees in containers – and you can see that the wind does present somewhat of a problem!!  We have had trees falling down all over the place – and it is only because we are used to shifting them about that we can cope with over a ton of leaf and bark descending from a great height!

Still – we must be grateful for small mercies – and the lifting of the hosepipe ban has allowed us to water everything with ease again – this is still an incredible year for planting – allowing the planting of everything from trees to shrubs to continue – in stark contrast to last year when all of East Anglia was a dustbowl.

This weather has allowed us to push on with propagation of shrubs and perennials from cuttings – and also potting on of young trees ready for autumn sales.  The plants from the Suffolk Show are slotting back into the routine of being back on the nursery – and we have been delighted to see many of you at the nursery who came and saw us on the stand.

Who knows what the weather will do next – but we cannot do anything but moan about it!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME

RICHARD

The Suffolk Show 2012 will go down in history for several different reasons – the date was moved due to the Jubilee – but more so because in it’s 180 year history – the second day has never been cancelled before.

We had a very good and successful show – the set-up went very well – we started a week before the show – and spread the work over five days – so allowing us to get ahead without spending half the night at the showground!

The first day of the show was a real success – despite heavy rain in the afternoon – a huge number of people came to see us  - and we really appreciated all the kind comments.  We were even more delighted to receive a Large Gold Medal from the judges – so a good day all round.  The second day – we were in early on the stand as usual – it was very windy indeed  - and the flower show marquee was definitely moving around – and the decision was soon taken to cancel the show due to health and safety reasons.  This was obviously very disappointing – but it had to be the right thing to do.

The Suffolk Show is our biggest event of the year away from the nursery – and it is a mammoth task moving all of the plants up to the showground – and back.  It is all a real team effort – everybody is involved at some point – and thanks go to each and every one of the Crown Nursery team – it would not have happened without you!!

Photos of this year’s stand are on display in the office at the nursery – so if you were unable to see our stand – do have a look and see what we did this year – we are already working on 2013!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME,

RICHARD