October 2013 | The Garden 6766 The Garden | October 2013
Sweet peasSweet peas
S till among the most popular of hardy annuals (they are in the
top fi ve annual fl owers sold by seed merchants � ompson &
Morgan), sweet peas (selections of Lathyrus
odoratus) have long been cherished for the beauty of their fl
owers – available in almost every conceivable colour but true
yellow (those called ‘blues’ by enthusiasts are often lilac/mauve)
– and more particularly for their scent. � e species is native to
Mediterranean countries but was fi rst grown in the UK in 1699;
early plants had small but strongly scented dark purplish fl owers.
Over time plants with diff erent-coloured blooms were grown and
recorded; this natural, genetic variability aids growers to develop
the fl owers we now enjoy, including stripes, picotees, bicolours
and intense solid colours.
Among the oldest cultivated sweet peas are still-popular
‘grandifl ora’ types. � ese were fi rst developed by grower Henry
Eckford in the 19th century. His plants produced three or four fl
owers held on short stems, larger and in a wider range of colours
than previously seen. At the beginning of the 20th century came
‘Spencer’ sweet peas, so named as the
1 ‘White Supreme’✤ Use: popular for exhibition, fine in garden.
Reliable selection awarded an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 1994;
large flowers grow on long stems. Good scent. Ensure seed is
sourced from a reliable merchant (as with other older Spencer
cultivars).
2 ‘White Frills’✤ Use: exhibition or garden.Popular, well-named
pure white sweet pea with large, ru� led flowers on strong stems.
Well-grown plants produce four flowers on a stem. Excellent sweet
pea to include in wedding flowers.
3 ‘Mrs R Chisholm’✤ Use: exhibition or garden.Raised in
Scotland, this is a pure white, relatively new cultivar
occasionally infused with pale pink on the first flush of
flowers.
4 ‘Jilly’✤ Use: superb for exhibition, good in the garden.The
most popular cream sweet pea and with sweet scent, ‘Jilly’ has been
the best in its colour class for 25 years. Awarded the AGM in
1994.
5 ‘Mrs Bernard Jones’ ✤ Use: excellent for exhibition or garden
use.Released by Unwins in 1981, awarded an AGM in 1994 and a
favourite with Jim McDonald. It has good scent and proves a
reliable performer.
6 ‘Alan Titchmarsh’✤ Use: excellent for cutting, good in the
garden. Fine selection with delightful pale pink to rose-pink
flowers, with delicious scent, held on stems of a good length.
7 ‘Gwendoline’✤ Use: superb for exhibition or garden.A favourite
with many growers. Awarded an AGM in 1998 and launched by Unwins
the following year, Roger Parsons describes this as ‘an absolute
banker’ that flowers prolifically and is weatherproof. It blooms
early and is excellent in the garden.
8 ‘Promise’✤ Use: exhibition or garden.A pink and white
bicolour, raised by Roger Parsons, with big blowsy flowers. A good
garden sweet pea and a strong grower; blooms over a long
period.
9 ‘Evening Glow’✤ Use: a reliable selection in the garden.A
pretty sweet pea awarded an AGM in 1996. The orange-pink flowers
seem to be incandescent as the sun goes down. Produces good
scent.
10 ‘Lizbeth’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden.‘Lizbeth’ is similar to
‘Valerie Harrod’ but pinker. It produces big wavy flowers that last
well in water. Excellent scent.
11 ‘Valerie Harrod’ ✤ Use: a fine garden selection. Similar to
‘Evening Glow’, with orange-pink flowers, but easier to grow in the
North. Plants can exceed 2m (6½ft). Awarded AGM 2001.
12 ‘Mollie Rilstone’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden. Rose-edged
picotee flowers on cream ground are beautiful in bud – a mix of
green, cream and pink. Good scent and excellent for cutting.
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Grandiflora sweet peas have smaller, less-ru� led flowers than
Spencers, held on shorter stems but make fine garden plants; ‘The
Major’ (above left) has well-scented flowers with purple streaks
while crimson ‘King Edward VII’ (above right) dates from 1903 and
usually has three flowers per stem.
Pick of the Spencer sweet peas2
‘Sweet peas have long been cherished for the beauty of their fl
owers’
The Spencer sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) cultivars here and
overleaf have been recommended by the RHS Sweet Pea Advisory Group
for scent, range of colour and garden worthiness.
»
fi rst was grown by Silas Cole, head gardener to the Spencer
family. � ese are now the most widely grown of sweet peas and have
large, frilly fl owers on long stems, making them better cut fl
owers than grandifl oras, if weaker garden plants. � ere is a large
range to choose from in many colours.
Other sweet peas include ‘semi-grandi-fl oras’ (intermediates
between Spencers and grandifl oras), while among more recent
selections are ‘modern grandifl oras’, with large, scented fl owers
held on long stems. � ere are also ‘multifl oras’ (with at least fi
ve fl owers per stem), ‘semi-dwarfs’ and ‘dwarfs’, among
others.
Expert opinionJim McDonald (Vice Chairman of the RHS Sweet Pea
Advisory Group) singles out Spencers as his favourites; he likes
their size and use for showing. � e frilly edge to the petals is
still the defi ning characteristic of a Spencer pea and many of the
best cultivars are from this section.
Old-fashioned and grandifl ora peas still have a special place
in the hearts of sweet pea enthusiasts, including Roger Parsons
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October 2013 | The Garden 6968 The Garden | October 2013
Sweet peasSweet peas
Autumn sowingSow in autumn if you want large, early plants, with
big flowers on long stems. These are provided by a strong root
system that has grown over winter.
Seeds should be sown into pots at least 10cm (4in) deep; many
growers prefer to use Rootrainers or tubes. Use multipurpose
compost with added John Innes, as this has an open structure
preventing compaction. Jim McDonald sows in mid-November and again
on Boxing Day with one more sowing a couple of weeks later but, in
the north of the UK, gardeners should sow early (in mid-October),
or avoid winter sowings when light levels are low.
Once leaves are showing, place seedlings in an open cold frame
to encourage root growth, only covering in wet or cold periods.
Short cold snaps down to -5°C (23°F) will not trouble seedlings.
Plant out in spring, from late March onwards, into containers or
well-dug soil improved with a dressing of blood, fish and bone
fertiliser.
(holder of a National Plant Collection of sweet peas). � ey grow
to around 1.8m (6ft), have strong perfume, a good range of colours,
and produce plenty of fl owers and seed. Plants are less tall than
Spencer sweet peas. Both experts like semi-grandifl oras, such as
‘Albutt Blue’, for having the good scent of old-fashioned kinds and
long stems for cutting. Also worth growing are semi-dwarf sweet
peas. While these have less scent, they grow to just 1m (39in),
making them ideal for small spaces or pots.
Choosing which to growYoung sweet peas are best supported with
pea sticks or, for a more formal eff ect, a
13 ‘Daily Mail’✤ Use: reliable sweet pea for the
garden.Descriptions for the colour of this flower range from bold
cerise-pink to orange-carmine. The colour is evenly spread and it
has a decent scent.
14 ‘Duo Salmon’✤ Use: a fine garden plant.The flowers of this
Keith Hammett (plant breeder) cultivar appear prolifically on stems
of a good length. Its red standard (vertical) petals with pinky
lilac wings (horizontal) are hard to beat; AGM 2010. ‘The best for
gardens for a long time,’ says Jim McDonald.
15 ‘Winston Churchill’✤ Use: good for garden use. Not commonly
grown among connoisseurs, this selection has nicely ru� led, bright
crimson flowers with a clean, light scent.
16 ‘Ruby Anniversary’ ✤ Use: excellent for exhibition, fine in
the garden. This selection, launched in 2000, has delightful,
well-ru� led flowers of pale reddish purple. A striking flower to
grow for cutting and displaying.
17 ‘Bristol’✤ Use: exhibition-quality blooms.Awarded AGM in
1999, the flowers are soft pale blue with excellent scent. Forms
fairly short plants in comparison with other Spencers, but plenty
of blooms are borne throughout summer.
18 ‘Lilac Ripple’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden. This cultivar is
one of Roger Parson’s favourites. Introduced by Thompson &
Morgan in 1988, it is a reliable sweet pea with a long flowering
season. Flowers feature mauve stripes on a white ground.
19 ‘Just Julia’ ✤ Use: excellent for exhibition or in the
garden. A recent selection by Roger Parsons, this is proving
reliable in a wide range of conditions all over the world. A
beautiful mid-blue flower of the highest quality that received the
AGM in 2012.
20 ‘Sir Jimmy Shand’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden use.Slightly
longer-stemmed version of ‘Lilac Ripple’ with up to four flowers on
a stem. Bred in Scotland by Robert Chisholm, the flowers are white
striped with mauve. There is a pretty mauve thin line called a wire
rim around each petal.
21 ‘Noel Sutton’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden. Introduced by
Suttons more than 40 years ago; produces lots of long stems with
mid-blue, heavily scented ru� led flowers. Still popular; AGM
1994.
22 ‘Eclipse’ ✤ Use: exhibition or garden. Launched by Unwins in
1975, this selection has stood the test of time and continues to be
reliable. The strong mauve, ru� led flowers have good scent.
23 ‘Frances Kate’ ✤ Use: excellent for cutting. With unusual,
large, deep blue-striped, white flowers on strong stems, this
cultivar was raised by Roger Parsons and launched in late 2010.
24 ‘Windsor’ ✤ Use: good for garden use and exhibition.A
chocolate-maroon flower which stands up well to bad weather. ‘A
“must” in multi-vase classes in shows,’ says Jim McDonald. Has good
scent and is dazzling in a bunch with white sweet peas.
More choice Spencer sweet peas
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Support grandiflora sweet peas such as ‘Bramdean’ (above) with
wire and canes.
Roger Parsons has written about the diversity of Lathyrus
species in The Plantsman, sister publication to The Garden. For
subscription information, visit: www.rhs.org.uk/plantsman✤ Easton
Walled Gardens, Lincolnshire is an RHS Partner Garden o� ering free
entry to members (main cardholder only) Mar–May. See RHS Members’
Handbook 2013, p94. www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk
www.rhs.org.uk
taller structure that ensures plants get as much support at the
top as at the bottom. � e best results are from regularly fed
plants grown in well-dug, fertilised soil. Choosing seed can be
daunting; the RHS Sweet Pea Advisory Group have picked a range of
good Spencer cultivars, shown on these pages, to give an indication
of the best on off er.
In 1911, the Daily Mail ran a sweet pea competition off ering a
fi rst prize of £1,000. It was won by a vicar from Cumbria in the
face of stiff professional competition. It is this plant’s ability
to grow for home gardener and professional alike, from the north of
Scotland to Cornwall, that makes it so worthy of a place in any
garden. £
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SUPPLIERS Sweet pea seed is available in October for autumn
sowing. Specialist suppliers include:✤ Mary & Jim McDonald
Sweet Peas: 01794 301490; [email protected]✤ Roger
Parsons Sweet Peas: 01243 673770; www.rpsweetpeas.co.uk✤ Owl’s Acre
Sweet Peas: 01775 723284; www.lathyrus.com ✤ Eagle Sweet Peas:
01889 270215; www.eaglesweetpeas.co.uk ✤ Simply Seeds and Plants:
0844 502 5744; www.simplyseedsandplants.co.uk✤ Matthewman’s Sweet
Peas: 01977 621381; www.sweetpeasonline.co.uk
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