A ROSE by any other name would smell as sweet.

Maybe. But if you’re choosing one to reflect the beauty of one of the world’s most famous stained glass windows, you’d better make sure it looks the part.

The Dean of York, the Very Rev Keith Jones, has no doubt that the new York Minster Rose will do just that.

It is a new strain of plant developed especially for the Minster, and planted for the first time in Dean’s Park – on the opposite side of the Minster to the famous Rose Window – by the Dean himself yesterday.

It will flower for the first time in June, when the people of York will be the first anywhere – outside the nurseries where it was developed – to see it.

And what will it look like? It is, apparently, a “repeat flowering floribunda bush with creamy full petals which are a delicate….–” Hold on! It says here a “delicate pink”.

A pink rose? To represent the ancient capital of the white rose county? Some mistake, surely?

Apparently not. The colour echoes the centrepiece of the magnificent Rose Window, the Dean says. It has warm cream and golden tones as well as pink, which will “pick up the wonderful colour of the magnesium limestone” from which the Minster is built.

But won’t people be upset that it isn’t the white rose of Yorkshire?

“I don’t think so,” the Dean said. “It has a royal quality about it, too.”

Quite right too, if it is to adequately represent England’s second ancient royal capital.

The York Minster Rose was developed by Harkness Roses, of Hertfordshire, and will be officially launched at the Chelsea Flower Show next year.

Ultimately, the Dean hopes that everyone who visits the Minster will take a rose home to plant in their garden.

“This rose will be a reminiscence of York Minster for everyone’s garden, and a beautiful memento of a place to remember,” he said.

Plans are already afoot for a garden party to celebrate when the rose flowers for the first time in Dean’s Park in June.

“I think it may be an ice cream party,” the Dean said.

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