Following five years of development the official rose for Staffordshire was unveiled. It was the brainchild of Brian Cox, vice-president of The Staffordshire Society, at Sandon Hall on September 23rd 2010.

It all began when Brian visited a garden centre.

“In 2005, we celebrated the centenary of the Staffordshire Society and we had a visit to a local rose grower and we saw that there were roses from different counties, but not one from Staffordshire.”

The rose was developed by Notcutts with Gavin Shaw from Mattocks Roses cultivating the rose. The County of Staffordshire Rose has a sweet fragrance and flowers continuously from June through to October. It has clusters of between five and eight copper-yellow flowers which eventually fade to an amber colour.

You can buy the rose from Mattocks, Bridgemere and Astbury garden centres.