A RENOWNED rose festival will be held in Pickering for the third year as it expands to include entertainment for the whole family.

R V Roger Ltd, Malton Road, will host the two-day festival once again as it opens its gates for visitors to see some of the highest calibre rose exhibitors from across the country.

Although previous years of the Ryedale Rose Festival were hailed a sweet success, this year the festival will also have local artists and craftsmen in attendance. The Royal Horticultural Society's Gold medal botanical artist Bridget Gillespie will be there along with willow weaving from Dragon willow and displays from local schools and Kirkbymoorside Photographic Society.

Mark Gerrand-Jones, from RV Roger Ltd, said that this year they had been keen to expand the event to attract people whether they were rose experts or not and create an event for everyone to enjoy.

He said: “We are very much looking forward to it. Because it’s our third year it is still fairly new to us, but we are learning rapidly and trying to build it up.

“We are hoping that it is going to be bigger and better than before as we have been planning musicians and artists which is something we wanted to expand on.

“We wanted to make sure that this was an event that everybody could enjoy.”

The event originated in the Lake District many years ago but was taken over by R V Roger Ltd three years ago thanks to their expertise in roses. The past two years have seen the introduction of new roses such as Calendar Girls and Hannah Lucy Cockcroft after the Paralympic wheelchair athlete.

Visitors will be able to admire more than 50,000 roses and seek advice from RV Roger professionals.

The event also incorporates the British Isles Rose Society’s flagship annual show and awards ceremony.

The show will be opened by Joe Maiden, a well-known gardener, author and radio presenter on Saturday July 11, and the festival will run through the weekend from 10am-5pm each day.