Description
A strong growing clone which makes glaucous foliage and pristine large white flowers of heavy substance with thick petals. It has an inverted green “horseshoe” on the inner segments.
When established it makes a second leaf pair and scape, later than the first one and it flowers from each of the leaf pairs, doubling the display and considerably extending the flowering season.
One of the very oldest extant hybrid cultivars, probably with plicatus and nivalis in the parentage. Its folklore implies that it was found on the Straffan estate in Ireland amongst a batch of snowdrops brought from Crimea after the cessation of the Crimean War, in the late 1850s however the attributed date of discovery of the cultivar and the employment of the gardener who is attributed with the discovery do not work. It is almost certain that it did not originate from Crimea but unfortunately its precise origins some time in the mid to late-mid 19th century can only be implied and speculated. The fact that it is still widely grown and sought after, and that it still survives, is testimony to the desirability and vigorous constitution of this excellent garden plant.
AM 1968 (RHS), AGM
for UK sales ONLY NOT available for export
