A gorgeous picotee, the ruffled flowers open creamy white with pink flushed edges.  Delightful and highly scented with long stems to make perfect cut flowers.  Height to 180cm.   Annual.

 Price for 15 seeds. 

Spencer type with beautiful blooms in deep purple, burgundy-maroon shades. Height to 180cm, super choice for an arch or wigwam, very good fragrance. Annual Price for 15 seeds 

Sweet Pea Burnished Bronze will provide you with rich, deep scarlet-maroon waved flowers with a lovely scent.  This is a resilient variety; petals are darker in partial shade and resistant to weather damage. The stems are long, ideal for picking, and the flower colour is much desired for arrangements.

Price for 15 seeds

Flowering late June to September.  Height to 180cm. Annual.

SOW: either in deep pots from October to February (place in a cold frame) or sow in March or April.  You can direct sow in mild areas in the spring. Some people believe that soaking the seed overnight before sowing will improve germination.

GROW:  harden off your spring sown plants before planting out in May/June for blooms from July.  Overwintered sweet peas may flower earlier than this.  Sweet peas need support: canes, netting or frame.

TOP TIP: to get the most from your sweet peas they will need extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season. It is really important to keep deadheading any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop it will stop the plant producing flowers.

Daphne displays delicate and clear lavender blooms, slightly frilled and highly scented. The colour is more intense at the base of the flowers.  It is very free flowering; the long stems help make it even more perfect for cutting.  Height 180cm  Price for 15 seeds

SOW & GROW: either in October for overwintering in a cold frame, Jan-Feb under glass or sow in March or April in deep pots or direct sow in mild areas in the spring. Soaking the seed overnight before sowing can improve germination.  Harden off your spring sown plants before planting out in May/June for blooms from July.  Overwintered sweet peas will flower earlier than this.  Provide support for them to climb, grow them with climbing beans to attract pollinators.  Keep picking to encourage further flowers.

ENJOY: your sweet peas will respond to extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season

Henry Eckford – this wonderful heirloom, introduced in the very early 1900s, has blooms in bold orange-red, shading to salmon. Strongly scented and best grown in part shade this variety reaches 120-150cm in height.

Price for 15 seeds

Who was Henry Eckford

Henry Eckford was born in Stenhouse, Scotland in 1823.  When he was 16, he was apprenticed in the gardens of Beaufort Castel near Inverness.  After employment in various Scottish gardens he went on to become the head gardener for the 5^th Earl of Radnor at Coleshill in Berkshire in 1854.  From this date he is known to have started experimenting with plant breeding (including dahlias and verbenas). In 1870 he moved again to Gloucester, it was here that he was particularly encouraged in plant breeding, he started to concentrate on sweet peas in 1879.  By 1888 he had established his own plant nursery, ‘Eckford’s Nursery, in Wem, Shropshire.  It was here that he perfected the breeding of his Grandiflora sweet peas: these displayed great improvement in the size of the blooms and general performance over earlier varieties.  In 1905 he was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the RHS in recognition of his contribution to horticulture, he died at the end of that year.  The Eckford Sweet Pea Society of Wem has held a sweet pea show each year in July (except during the recent pandemic) with a section dedicated to old fashioned varieties, featuring many originally bred by Henry Eckford.  

This is a beautifully scented deep blue Spencer type. The best fragrance for this colour, stunning on its own or in combination with paler or picotee blooms. Annual. Price for 15 seeds.

To get the most from your sweet peas they will need extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season. It is very important to keep deadheading any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop the plant will slow down and then stop producing flowers.

Wafting a super scent, the lavender coloured blooms of Leamington, with their wavy petals, are a total delight in the garden or when cut for a vase.  Price for 15 seeds

Flowering June to September.  Height to 180cm. Annual.

To get the most from your sweet peas they will need extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season. It is very important to keep deadheading any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop the plant will slow down and then stop producing flowers.. 

For the longest flower stems try growing them up individual supports and trim off any side shoots… this will limit the flowers, but the plant responds with longer flower stems and larger blooms.  Hmmm, my thoughts are that I would rather have as many blooms as possible and live with the stems being a little shorter!

This is an improved form of Early Multiflora Gigantea. It is the best variety for producing early flowers. You can even grow these in a cold greenhouse if you can spare the space! The vigorous plants have long strong stems with large flowers. Height to 150cm. Annual Price for 15 seeds

With this variety starting early and flowering for a long season they will respond well to need extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal). Remember that it is very important to keep deadheading any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop the plant will slow down and then stop producing flowers.

Mrs Bernard Jones is best described as candyfloss-pink over white with wavy petal edges, this AGM winning variety is a highly scented stunner with huge flowers on long stems. The quality of this variety has kept it a top seller ever since Bernard Jones bred this in 1981 (and named it after his wife hence ‘Mrs’).  Height 180cm or more. 12 seeds.

SOW & GROW: either in October for overwintering in a cold frame, Jan-Feb under glass or sow in March or April in deep pots or direct sow in mild areas in the spring. Soaking the seed overnight before sowing can improve germination.  Harden off your spring sown plants before planting out in May/June for blooms from July.  Overwintered sweet peas will flower earlier than this.  Provide support for them to climb, grow them with climbing beans to attract pollinators.  Keep picking to encourage further flowers.

ENJOY: your sweet peas will respond to extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season

Nimbus is the most dramatic Spencer variety it has been our pleasure to grow… long stemmed pale blooms are marbled with inky blue-black with dark edged wings that roll gently under, the colour mellowing to deepest plum over time. Beautiful and divinely scented too. Height can be over 180cm.

Price for 15 seeds

What is so amazing about Nimbus?

Perhaps it is easier to tell you what isn’t amazing about Nimbus…I can’t find anything!  These have long stemmed blooms – perfect for a vase.  The colour is sumptuous, the contrast between the pale background and the dark markings is perfection: the drama I have written about.  The scent is outstanding.  The individual flowers are a good size.  This variety is relatively new, introduced in 1996, now a favourite for showing combined with excellent garden performance.  They are tall, 180cm should be expected and they can reach over 200cm.  For bushier plants pinch out the growing tips when plants have 4 pairs of leaves – this encourages the plant to produce side shoots from near the base, perfect for growing at home and producing lots and lots of flowers.

Specialist exhibition growers will have their own library of tricks but will not pinch out instead grow on a single stem to concentrate all the plants efforts in that place.  Remember they are growing for a particular competition date and are not desiring a long season of continuous flowers.  

The simple way to enjoy lots of flowers is to keep picking and deadheading and your sweet peas will keep on flowering.