Unlike many things in the garden – dahlias, I’m looking at you – the sweet peas have had a great year. True, they were slow to start thanks to the cold spring but I was still picking at the end of September – a first in my garden.
At the height of the season, it wasn’t unusual to be able to pick a full trug of flowers every four or five days and, at times, I ran out of vases.
I tried several new varieties as part of my Gardening Trials (seeds were given free to trial), which I grew alongside sweet peas from previous years. Here’s a round-up of those that were new to me – a variety of colours but all with a really good scent.
‘Our Harry’ (Chiltern Seeds) proved to be a sturdy performer with masses of flowers and the longest stems of any of the varieties I grew. Even better, they stayed long right through the season when a lot of others were beginning to shorten.
The wonderfully named ‘Suffolk Punch Miggie’ (Mr Fothergill’s) had two-toned purple and lavender flowers – although a lot of mine were much darker. The firm were donating 25p of every packet sold to The Suffolk Punch Trust, which helps endangered Suffolk Punch horses. Again, it was a strong performer and one of the last to stop flowering.
Another darker variety among the sweet peas was ‘Memories’ (Chiltern Seeds), which was also good grower, producing masses of flowers. I find the dark shades are essential as a counterpoint to pale varieties in a vase.
Some of the prettiest sweet peas are those with delicate markings and three of the Gardening Trials varieties had those.
‘Lady Nicholson’ (Kings Seeds) was a beautiful contrast of purple and white, while ‘Mrs Bernard Jones’ (Chiltern Seeds) had pink and creamy white flowers. ‘Albutt Blue’ (Kings Seeds) had paler tones with delicately rimmed petals.
‘Purple Pimpernel’ (Thompson & Morgan) is a beautiful bi-colour variety that worked well with pinks and purples.
Of course, you always need pale flowers to set off all those dark tones and I grew three that were perfect for the role. ‘Juliet’ has beautiful creamy blooms, ‘Piggy Sue’ was cream flushed with apricot peach, while ‘White Ensign’ had snowy white flowers. (All three from Chiltern Seeds.)
In startling contrast were the bold colours of ‘Happy Birthday’ (Chiltern Seeds) and ‘Winston Churchill’ (Thompson & Morgan). I’m not sure I’d want a vase of either on their own but mixed in with other colours, they provide the necessary punch to make a display sing.
Finally, there was also ‘Tickled Pink’ (Thompson & Morgan) with its pale pink blooms. A good variety for those who like their sweet peas to be pastels and delicate.
Many gardeners start their sweet peas off in the autumn to get an earlier show. I leave my sowing until the New Year as I’m too busy with bulb planting now. You can read about how I grow them here.
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