Rosa Gallica officianalis.

For over three years I have been asking this question at garden shows and garden centres.  Why can I not buy a Rosa Gallica officianalis, The rose of Lancaster, the official Lancashire rose IN LANCASHIRE?

Oh! yes.  I can send away for it to a specialist grower but is it not obscene for the garden centres in Lancashire to have none in stock or even order it for me?  I think so.

What about the white rose of Yorkshire?  Is that the same for Yorkshire folk?

I am in Blackpool.

Given that garden centres are commercial enterprises, I'm sure that if there is the demand they will stock them.

Trouble is that everyone seems to go for the specially named varieties.  You know the ones, Jubillee, Alan Titchmarsh etc.  There are so many new ones that they cannot possibly stock them all.

So send for one from David Austin or Peter Beales - I know they're not Lancashire-based but if they stock the rose you want ...?  I really don't see the problem - all it means that not a lot of people in Lancashire want to buy one - they may already have one.  And when you have yours flowering in your garden and you get all the admiring comments and you explain what it is, you could stimulate demand and eventually your local GCs may stock it