The message m
from jayjay contains these words:

I am going to see my new grandchild in Aberdeen next week. I am
thinking of buying a rose tree or something that we can plant to mark
her birth. Have you any suggestions but not too outlandish, as I
only have access to quite ordinary garden centres. What grows in
Aberdeen, climbing roses? magnolias?
dwarf flowering cherries? what do you think?

Roses are lovely, but not extremely longlived, and it's a bit
dispiriting for a recipient if their commemorative gift dies.

A small, very hardy, very pretty small tree which you'll easily be
able to find up there, is prunus subhirtella autumnalis rosea. (Look in
www. google, click "images", for a picture. It's a flowering cherry, and
the flowers are small, double and pale pink. Best of all, is the
extraordinary length of the flowering season. It starts around November
after the leaves fall and flowers till spring, reliably, every year. So
with luck you should find one in bloom right now. You can often get a
choice of shape; I prefer the ones which branch from low down, to the
ones with a bare straight trunk

Janet