Sweet Pea Mollie Rilstone

Ask sweet pea people for a favourite and this is the name that comes back most often. Large elegantly frilled flowers in creamy white edged with a soft antique rose picotee, on long straight stems, with a powerful old-fashioned fragrance that most Spencers of this size gave up long ago. It holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit.

The colour moves as the flower ages. The pink edge gradually flushes inward into the cream, so a stem carries several stages at once and a bunch is never a uniform shade. That is the charm of it, and worth knowing if you had a matched set in mind for an event; cut over a few days and sort.

It is vigorous and wants a proper support and rich ground, with plenty of manure or compost dug in before planting.

Pick every flower as it opens. A plant that sets one pod concludes its season is finished and stops within a fortnight, and that is the single commonest reason sweet peas disappoint by August.