IHAVE a horticultural friend who has cultivated a new strain of rose. It has pale pink petals with a bright blue stamen - which is very unusual to say the least.

He tells me that, in the first year of growth, the colours remain constant, but, by the time it comes to bloom in its second year, the stamen turns crimson and the petals a bright red.

I asked him what he was going to call this new rose, to which he repled: 'New Labour.' Need I say more?

JOHN D FARRER (Mr), Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.

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