Newsletter No.9: 9th November 2010
Much as I love Autumn the weather this week has been hard to bear, coming as it does hard on the heels of the last episode of Downton Abbey (incidentally, what one could do with staff!). This year’s cider is safely abed, as are the bees, and we’re bottling the sloe gin ahead of the North Dorset Rugby Club Christmas Fair (don’t ask!). Although we’ve just about finished bulbs now, we’re at the start of the bare root season so it’s organized chaos (or perhaps I shouldn’t say that – “very busy” perhaps). I’ve been delighted by the number of we are selling, where we’ve almost become victims of our own success as we’re already sold out of a number of apple varieties. We’ve now listed them on the website by region of origin, which seems to have gone down well.
We’ve extended our range by adding another supplier, Ian Sturrock, to our list. Ian specializes in old Welsh fruit trees, so we’re now able to sell apple trees like Anglesey Pig’s Snout and Pigeon’s Beak. We are now also working with Dulford Nurseries in Devon, who we are using to supply extra-large sizes of native trees.
Our big corporate news is still largely under wraps, so I can’t reveal too much until the New Year, but we’ve teamed up with Hilliers to produce an exciting new range of meadow products which will be sold through their retail, mail order and online networks. Without wanting to sound too much of a suck-up I’m delighted; we have been looking for a reliable, supportive and ethical retail partner for a little while (it’s harder than you might think!) and Hilliers fit the bill perfectly. A portion of the profit on sales of the products will go to either Butterfly Conservation, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, or the Grasslands Trust, and we will be using the opportunity to promote them as well.
We’ve been very active on the social media front, and now have well over 500 followers on Twitter, some of whom listened to my latest appearance on lovely BBC Somerset (if you can “appear” on radio?). The website currently has its highest ranking yet in the UK according to Alexa (well in the top 15,000!), which has been helped by some kind references and blogging ranging from the to the
My marketing efforts over the winter will be aimed at landscape architects. We’ve picked up more business from them as a group as we’ve gone along, but we need to promote ourselves much more heavily to them as suppliers of native plants and seeds in particular. If you’ve got any helpful contacts please let me know!
Oh – and “Habitat Aid” is now a UK trademark. That’s got to be worth a few quid even if everything else goes pear shaped. That’s Perry Pear shaped, of course.
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