To celebrate one of the UK’s favourite flowers, Haskins Garden Centre has re-launched an exclusive ‘Name the Rose’ competition across all four of its centres.

The competition, which is now open, closes on Saturday March 31. Customers are encouraged to visit haskins.co.uk/rose-of-the-year and fill in the entry form for the chance to win the rose and see the name used in all Haskins’ centres.

This year’s rose is a scented floribunda with apricot coloured semi-double flowers. The rose produces sprays of flowers from June to September, growing up to heights of 1.5m. The variety is fully hardy and can handle full sun and partial shade. This particular rose grows on average 25 petals each.

Lisa Looker, brand director at Haskins Garden Centres, said: “This was one of our most popular competitions last year, with over 400 entries and we are delighted to bring it back for 2018. The rose is such a versatile flower and means so many different things to people. Suiting any type of garden, the rose is grown in a vast amount of colours and varieties.”

The winner of the competition will be notified by the end of April and will be invited into their local centre and presented with the rose.

The garden centre group’s renowned Rose Festival returns from May 17 to July 26 and will see the winning rose go on sale to the public. Haskins will also sell 200 other types of roses, including the new range of roses from Peter Beales Roses and David Austin Roses.

Alasdair Urquhart, Haskins’ in-house plant expert, said: “Roses are hungry plants that respond well to generous feeding. They grow well in almost any well drained soil and benefit from a mulch of well-rotted manure during the winter.

“To keep the rose in good condition, regular dead heading is advised. Ideally, roses should be planted in an area exposed to sunlight, but with partial shade.”

Haskins has centres in Ferndown in Dorset, West End in Southampton and Roundstone and Snowhill in West Sussex. For more information visit www.haskins.co.uk