Weekly Pickings: 12 June 2024

Here’s some news to get you excited on a Wednesday evening: Hitchin Lavender will be open for the summer this Saturday, 15 June.

As an extra treat, we’re giving visitors 50% off entrance fees in our first week of opening (i.e. until Friday 21 June). This is partly because we won’t have all our Main Field facilities – such as the food trucks, gift shop, and toilet block – open. Fear not, the Old Barn will be open next week, so we won’t be without tea, cake, and other goodies!

With that exciting news out of the way, let’s get into this week’s update.

How is the lavender looking?

The angustifolia lavenders on the left- and right-hand sides of the Main Field are now in flower! With these varieties looking vibrant and healthy, we’re ready for people to come and see them in person from this weekend!

The intermedia varieties in the middle of the Main Field are on their way towards flowering. As you can see in the left-hand photo below, the intermedia buds are just beginning to tinge purple. We’ll keep you updated on how these progress – they’ll likely be in flower within a month or so.

How are the wildflowers and sunflowers looking?

As you can see, the main wildflower patch isn’t quite in flower yet, although there are a number of other wildflowers dotted around the field, and in our conservation area. We’re not sure when the main patch will bloom as yet, but we’ll keep you posted!

As previously, the sunflowers are a little way off yet. We’re expecting to see these around the end of July or beginning of August.

Other News and Views

Amongst a host of other jobs, we’re happy to have put in place a new star shade in the Main Field. This will joined by another in the next few days, meaning we’ll have a good amount of shade and rain cover available in the field, whatever the weather throws at us!

There’ll be more to report once we’re open next week, but we’ll hope to see some of you before then!

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Check back next week for another update, lavender fans!