Description
Three Snowdrop seedlings were found and selected by the late Margaret Owen at her then garden at Acton Pigot in Shropshire, in 1993. These were named simply as No1, No2 and No3. The best of the trio is undoubtedly No3, with splayed, pale, glaucous-blue leaves and (usually) twin scapes each bearing a solitary flower. Where the flower joins onto the ovary, there is a marked constriction and the ovary itself is somewhat elongated and there is a faint hint of gold-yellow in the green shade of the ovary (though not in the flower petals). These differences are more easily noted when you compare Acton Pigot No3 to other snowdrops.
The individual flowers are good-sized and very lovely, with the innermost segments almost totally emerald-green coloured, in the manner of the older cultivars Merlin and Tubby Merlin. The best of all, No3, has flowers which are much fuller, due to the broader outer segments, which are also more pointed.
There are considered to be obvious differences between all of the Acton Pigot seedlings and the most closely related Tubby Merlin. Certainly, side by side, you would never mistake them but these differences are less easily quantified on paper. Most easily they can be discerned by the superior poise and larger size of the Acton Pigot flowers, which are twice as big as either of the ‘wizardly’ plants.
for UK sales ONLY NOT available for export
