These days, gardener Marco Engelhardt from the Wilfried Müller tree nursery is selling a particularly large number of horned violets. (Frank Thomas Koch)
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There is a place in the heart of the city where the moment seems easy, life serene, especially on mild, bright days of early spring. The sky is a soft, friendly blue, the sun shines so gently, as if the world it lights up day after day was the way it always was – without coronavirus, without rapid tests, without Covid-19.
As every year at this time, people stroll past the pallets, pots and rows that gardener Marco Engelhardt has lined up at the flower market from seven o’clock onwards. Spring sprouts around him. The plants stretch out of the earth in their pots, plucking blossoms with rich colors to attract the attention of passers-by. As soon as spring can be seen, tasted and felt, the busy days begin for Engelhardt, especially when the sun is shining. “People are completely different”, with or without an FFP 2 mask.
Some just stop to look and indulge. Others come purposefully to bring home a bit of spring. A little often turns into a little more, but it also blooms too beautifully, and there are volume discounts. 3.50 each, three for ten euros.
Sebahattin Yüksel buys a palette of pansies, color: mixed. The day before he had already bought a pallet of primroses – for the garden in Walle. One customer asks Marco Engelhardt about roses, another looks for camellias – in vain. It is still too early for that, he says, “they will come with me soon, in all colors”.
Another woman asks about plants for partial shade. Engelhardt advises rhododendrons and azaleas. Rosemary? “It can actually do it anywhere.” He advises another customer: “You can cut back the eucalyptus, it grows like a shell.” A brief question that he hears over and over again: “Are they winter hardy?”
The range currently includes around 200 different types and varieties of plants, says the gardener, “practically everything that is currently in bloom” and also a little that will soon bloom. For more than 27 years he has been out and about in various flower markets for the Wilfried Müller tree nursery in Rastede, he says. You can tell immediately that this suits him. He is nimble, he knows how to chat and joke with customers. His advice is asked: “How can I tell whether the hydrangea is still alive?” “Scratch the stem, if it’s green underneath, everything is good,” replies Engelhardt.
Customers come with leaves and want to know which plant they belong to, whether they were picked in the allotment area or on holiday abroad. He often receives mobile phone photos. Successes are reported, failures, plants, still full of life on the way home, which soon drooped the flower heads. “Most of the time, it is poured incorrectly – far too much or far too little.”
“Everything that is colorful” is currently selling well. Horned violets, for example, are a thankful plant that blooms into August. There are hardly any pandemics: “There has been a little more fruit since last year.” The young peach trees that Engelhardt brought with him are blooming in bright pink, not for people, actually, but for insects. But who cares?
The plant stand manages without an electronic cash register. Engelhardt’s head is the scanner. All prices are programmed there, so to speak, the basic arithmetic anyway. Ralph Baumer single-mindedly approaches the scented lavender, he needs ten pieces. Engelhardt packed them up faster than you can pull out your wallet.
Ralph Baumer does not allow himself to be seduced by the splendor and walks away with two bags of lavender. This is more the exception than the rule. Many customers let their eyes wander, unable to decide. Do you prefer buttercups? Daffodils? Tulips? Primroses? Hyacinths? “My wife would like this here,” says an older man and holds out a pallet with twelve small plants towards Engelhardt. She looks around a bit, the little daffodils also have to come with her. Someone asks about lavender. “I only have the price tag for that. Tomorrow morning again. “
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