Flower power is set to give The Bantams a boost in their bid to win promotion to the Premier League.
A fan has grown a special strain of flower to honour them in City's famous amber and claret colours. It is believed to be the first time any football club has boasted an official flower.
Green-fingered Steve Craven, 43, of Foulds Terrace, Bingley, has spent three years carefully cultivating the bloom, the last one at a secret laboratory in Suffolk.
Now he is preparing to show it to the world at the Chelsea Flower Show in May when Primula Auricula Bradford City will officially be unveiled.
He and his wife Marlene, both keen fans, are in the throes of creating a City theme for the show, which will include dozens of the plants growing out of footballs and boots.
And best of all will be a scoreboard showing Bradford beating Chelsea 10-0. Steve said: "We've never thought about doing a football theme before when we've gone to Chelsea but with City doing so well at the moment it seemed a good time to unveil the flowers.
"It is a brand-new variety and I'm hoping to grow a whole team - each one will be slightly different. I've already got one named after Gary Walsh in my nursery at Eldwick.
"It's taken a long time to get the colours exactly right. It's been a slow laboratory job. It was a great moment when I realised I'd cracked it - there's nothing else like it."
The new variety was bred by accident.
Steve said: "We selected one and raised seedlings and took the best ones. It was a fluke getting the right colours - the bees did that."
The actual plant itself is in a laboratory getting bulked up and multiplying in test tubes filled with a special growth gel.
Bantams chairman Geoffrey Richmond said he was delighted at the news. He said: "I think it's wonderful and am really touched by what Steve has done. We have never had anything like this before.
"It is really something to have taken three years to do this for us, though I know he is a life-long City fan.
"That is real dedication. It would be nice to have some in the club eventually to brighten things up."
Ray Spiller, secretary of the Association of Football Statistics, said: "This is the first time I've heard of anyone doing anything like this.
"I just hope they don't change their colours or Steve will be putting his head through the flowerpot."
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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