Amelanchier Week

The arrival of spring has been so rapid this year that apple trees come into blossom in the middle of week 2009/16, while Chaenomeles bushes are also in delightful orangey-red flower (this is the Friesdorfer Typ 205 hybrid). By the Friday, after 16 days of dry warmth, even the Amelanchier rotundifolia has rushed into white blossom, causing this blog to skip a step this year: week 16 embraces two succession events, both the Magnolia and Amelanchier flowering. Amelanchier rotundifolia hits a peak midway through the week. One of the big occasions for Hamburg gardeners, the Pflanzenmarkt or spring market at the Kiekeberg farm-life museum, closes the week. This is always a delight because everyone who attends this rambling outdoor show is a plant nut, and the vendors are mostly specialists willing to talk at length about plant characteristics. I let myself be talked into buying a Magnolia grandiflora like one I saw a few weeks ago in New Zealand, although I may not even be alive to see it flower: many need 20 years to establish themselves in a new home before they produce a bloom. I also come home with a Romneya coulteri from K. Arborealis. Web research reveals that a "near" neighbour, Klaus Flintermann, up at Bordesholm 100 kilometres away, has created a Romneya website, and perhaps this will offer guidance. But I pass up the temptation to buy a New Zealand native, Corokia, which is not hardy enough for this Zone's winters.