Transtlantic sweet pea plants

I think this is a first! Plants of a recently introduced sweet pea in the old-fashioned style are now available - on both sides of the Atlantic. In North America in particular it can be hard to find sweet peas available as plants by mail order so this is a welcome development.

'Fire and Ice' is a recent introduction, an heirloom Grandiflora type, it's a red and white bicolour with a powerful fragrance. The wings feature an intriguing colour change: they start white with a blue edge and the blue colour slowly expands. It's great to see plants available by mail order on both sides of the Atlantic.

It turned up by chance as a mutation in a row of plants of a maroon and violet bicolour on Mark Rowland's trials at Owl's Acre Sweet Peas in Lincolnshire in eastern England. He selected it out, trialled it to be sure it was stable and introduced it on a limited scale in 2005. It made its debut at the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Flower Show where the picture was taken.

Plants are now available in North America from Heronswood.

Plants are now available in Britain from Simply Sweet Peas.

Comments

[Martha Stoodley/All the Dirt]

Oh, if I could only grow Sweet Peas here. Sadly our spring is too short (or there is some other problem). No one has been able to grow them to blooming stage.

Edible pea pods succeed - I planted the soaked seeds yesterday. They do fine year after year on the fence.

Is there a variety that will grow in areas with very short spring season?
Any advice would be welcome, Martha

[Julia]

Thanks for the heads-up about sweet pea plants at Heronswood. You can also get sweet pea plants at Select Seeds:selectseeds.com
Now I'm off to check Heronswood...

[Graham Rice]

I know... sweet peas are difficult to grow in the US in areas where the change from winter to summer happens quickly and spring is short. There's just not enough time for the plants to establish well and get their roots down before rising temperatures start to cause problems. At least if you put in plants at the same time that you would normally be sowing seeds they will become established more quickly.

[Digger]

I would recommend Grahams book about sweet peas to anyone who wants to grow them. With so many books and short essays written entirely about growing and showing sweet peas,Grahams book is a well balanced tome that gives loads of useful information, if you grow sweet peas for the garden then this book is essential reading.

[Graham Rice]

I'm glad you like The Sweet Pea Book, Digger, and thank you for recommending it to everyone. Click on the the link on the left to order it.