Veteran gardening columnist and broadcaster Peter Seabrook is urging garden centres to take part in a nationwide June rose promotion, following the demise of the Royal National Rose Society last year.

“The RNRS is in liquidation and nobody seems to be doing anything about it,” he told his GCA Conference audience. He has proposed a Rose Festival Week, in the third or fourth week of June, in which centres would mount displays and run a competition in which customers would be invited to submit single stems of their best roses, possibly using social media. “It would create a lot of chatter at a time when sales are just beginning to slow” he said.

The RNRS had championed roses at its spectacular Gardens of the Rose at St Albans for more than 50 years. The society went into administration last May after its debts topped £86,000.

Interested centres should contact Peter at this address.