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.

Unusual purple and lavender bicolour blooms that are produced continuously all summer. Considered one of the most fragrant sweet peas, the scent of each petite flower is captivatingly strong and sweet.  

Height to 200cm.  Annual.   Price for 15 seeds. 

This variety is perfect for growing beside a seat in your garden where you will catch the captivating scent as you rest and look out over your plot.  To enjoy them for the longest time they will like extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) to keep flowering throughout the season. Don't forget to deadhead any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop the plant will slow down and then stop producing flowers.

Highly scented. An old fashioned type with very attractive bi-coloured flowers of pink and white produced in abundance. Height to 300cm. Annual Price for 20 seeds

An old fashioned and highly scented variety, this a specially selected mix with small but highly scented blooms. Height 150-180cm . Annual Price for 15 seeds

Beautiful vibrant red blooms appear in profusion.  They are on long stems (ideal for cutting) and well scented.  This older Spencer variety is tall growing: height 180-240cm

 Price for 15 seeds. 

If you are worried about not reaching the flowers at the top then consider growing these on angled canes /  /  /  rather then upright ones I  I  I  Simply push long canes in at an angle that leaves the top at a height that you can reach and use soft string to tie you plants in if they need a bit of help to climb.  Some extra watering and feeding with a high potash plant food (tomato fertilizer is ideal) will help keep them flowering throughout the season. It is very important to keep deadheading any wilting blooms - if seed pods are allowed to develop they signal to the plant to slow down and then stop producing new flowers. 

This Spencer Mix is perfect for anyone who finds it difficult to choose individual colours… there are more 40 varieties, so your 20 seeds ought to give you a stunning spread of colour with every wavy-edged bloom highly scented too.  Flowering June to September.  Height up to 200cm. Annual.  Price for 20 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 it will stop the plant producing flowers.

Starry Night features strong deep purples and blues, along with touches of crimson and maroon, that are lit up by the occasional creamy-white bloom. Said to be inspired by Van Gough’s painting of the same name, the highly scented blooms are an artwork in themselves.  Height to 180cm.

Price for 20 seeds

“This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” wrote van Gogh to his brother Theo, describing his inspiration for one of his best-known paintings, The Starry Night (1889). This is one of the most recognizable paintings in Western art: it reflects Van Gough’s direct observations of his view of the countryside from his window as well as the memories and emotions this view evoked in him and continues to inspire others.

Flowers have this power to evoke memories and emotions – it might be the colour, the scent or the combination of varieties.  It might link to a specific memory or simply bring a sense of joy, peace or comfort or even pride… ‘I grew that, and it is lovely’.  There is no doubt that the very act of being in the garden, tending to plants and following their timeline brings us humans back to a natural pace where fulfilment and well-being can also flourish.

Swan Lake has lovely pure white blooms with gently ruffled petal edges that dance in the breeze.  Enjoy their splendour and scent as your only sweet pea or use as contrast to a bold colour such as Beaujolais, Burnished Bronze or Henry Eckford.  Height to 180cm

Price for 15 seeds

What do I grow sweet peas in?

It has always been said that sweet peas need deep pots, root trainers are a brand that has been touted as ideal but they are expensive and even being very careful they can break.  The reason for deep pots is that sweet peas do not like their roots being disturbed – they are fragile and break easily.  Planting them in situ in September or the spring is always a choice but if no plants come up it is more than likely that mice have found them and had a feast.  Garden centres are increasingly selling young sweet pea plants in shorter pots… but they cram in lots of seeds so when planting out the roots get damaged by being pulled apart.  3 seeds in a 9cm pot is sufficient and they can be planted out as a clump together without separating. 

The best method, and most economical, is to go ‘old school’ and utilise loo roll tubes.  Stand each loo roll tube in an old jam jar or tin can, fill the tube with compost (press down lightly to firm) and pop in 1 seed at 10-20mm depth and cover.  Sweet peas can send out roots at the bottom of pots, by putting each tube in its own jar or tin these roots cannot tangle up with one another and planting out is simply a case of making a hole and putting the tube in - the cardboard will breakdown over time.

Recycling, composting and saving money all rolled up in one neat solution and your reward - some of the best flowers you can possibly grow and enjoy.