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Dahlia created in honour of Dudley's Duncan Edwards after 50-year quest

A horticulturalist spent 50 years perfecting a red dahlia as a personal tribute to the late footballing legend Duncan Edwards – which even caught the eye of Sir Alex Ferguson, it has emerged.

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Manchester United fanatic Les Jackson was horrified, when as an 18-year-old construction worker, he picked up a paper to see his beloved team had been struck down after their plane had crashed on an icy Munich runway on February 6, 1958.

The disaster ultimately claimed the lives of eight of the famous 'Busby Babes' team including Dudley-born Duncan Edwards who was widely regarded as one of the best players to have ever lived.

Afterwards green-fingered Mr Jackson, now 74 and from Carlisle, Cumbria, decided to create his own special tribute to the talented star having inherited his mother's proficiency for growing dahlias.

But such was his admiration for the jewel in the crown of Sir Matt Busby's ill-fated team, he spent half a century creating the perfect flower determined that it needed to have a football-sized bloom, flawless symmetry, and a rich red colour which would not dim over time.

"I saw Duncan Edwards play, he was a big strapping lad. He had legs like tree trunks at 15, they thought he was going to be a rugby player.

"The dahlia had to be strong, with a bloom as big as a football, it had to be the right colour of red which Manchester United should always play in. It had to be sharp in petal so you would almost prick yourself if it was made of metal. It had to have the right number of petals.

"The key word for me was that it had to be a one-off, with nothing out there like it."

Elaborating on how he creates his unique dahlias, the great grandfather said: "It is called hybridisation, by hand. I am basically doing the job of bees, but bees don't know what they are doing, I do."

After all his painstaking effort Mr Jackson unveiled The Hillcrest Duncan Edwards – Hillcrest being his signature prefix – in 2009 entering it in the Harrogate Great Autumn Show where it scooped several awards.

But one unexpected bit of recognition for his work came in 2013 in a letter from Sir Alex Ferguson, in which he said: 'Naming the plant after Duncan Edwards is a lovely gesture, and the colour of the plant is perfect too. Well done Les.'

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