OH FOR SOME RAIN!!

Hello - what a dry old time we are having at the moment. It is good for the farmers to finish their harvesting - but here at the nursery we would love to have some rain!

We are fortunate in having an excellent irrigation system - and with some 5,000 trees and plants we need it! In the last few days - we have had temperatures up to 29.5C and nicely accompanied by a strong gale-force wind - the old NURSERYMANS' NIGHTMARE again!! Here in this part of Suffolk - we are used to drought - the average rainfall is just 19 inches - but most of that seems to come between November and March - I would not really say we have any decent rainfall since the end of March - and some of the plants in the ground - and in our gardens are really beginning to suffer. The Limes and Silver Birches seem to show it first - we think that is due to a relatively shallow root system - and a thin leaf- although again birch is a native of dry sandy soils. I recently saw some newly-planted trees in Peterborough that were virtually in full autumn tint - and on a visit to London the other day- 45 newly-planted Plane Trees along the M25/M11 corridor were completely bare of leaf.

I know it is obvious -but do give your poor old trees a couple of buckets of water in these testing conditions. They also love to have their foliage sprayed over with water late at night - it refreshes them and they can absorb a lot of water through their leaf - we love a shower at the end of a hot day - and so do they!!

Until next time,
RICHARD