Harry Wheatcroft

They were dedicated members of the Independent Labour Party, whose leaders visited the modest family home, and on many occasions the young Harry sat on Keir Hardie's knee.

Wheatcroft attended schools in Nottingham and also the Ecole Camille Desmoulins at Saint-Quentin, France, where he became fluent in French.

He grew into a striking figure, tall and slender until he filled out in middle age, with a pleasing gruff voice and a gift for witty repartee.

In 1935 their launch of Herbert Robinson's Phyllis Gold and Christopher Stone with unprecedented publicity surprised the British rose world.

After the war Wheatcroft contacted Francois Meilland of Lyons, whose rose, Peace, the sensation of the time, he introduced to Britain in 1948.

In the Chancery Division, 'With his Dundreary whiskers, his mane of black hair, his suit of black-and-white check ... the Nottingham rose king made as picturesque a figure this week as the Law Courts have seen'.

And he made Fragrant Cloud the talking point of the National Rose Society's autumn show in 1963 by filling a bowl with its wonderfully scented petals.

The acquisition of these varieties, with Peace and Queen Elizabeth, are Wheatcroft's enduring achievements, a tribute to his energy, good rose judgment, and entrepreneurial skills.

With capable young family members running the day-to-day business (never his strong suit) Wheatcroft gave his publicity skills free rein.

Clad in a floral shirt with royal-blue trousers flecked with colour, or perhaps in a suit of dogtooth tweed trimmed with tangerine velvet, against which his horn-rimmed spectacles swung wildly from a string.

He travelled the world, lectured extensively, and wrote books, and his television appearances included a commercial advertising cheese.

During this period Wheatcroft committed a social indiscretion at the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show by staging roses without a shirt on.

At home he was a quiet, even subdued family man, happy with his five children though with little time to spend with them, for they attended boarding school, and summer holidays coincided with shows.