About this box
Some sweet peas are grown for the nose, and some for the vase. The Long-Stem Sweet Pea Collection is for the vase: five Spencer varieties with large ruffled flowers, often four to a stem, on stems long and straight enough for a generous jug or the show bench. All are scented, and all climb to around two metres or more in a season.
Parfume Millennium is a deep velvet crimson that holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit and, unusually for a crimson, stands up to summer sun without scorching. Mollie Rilstone is soft cream edged in rose, a sweet pea growers' favourite with a strong scent. Parfume Promise, another RHS AGM winner, is one of the prettiest bicolours there is, in rose-pink and pure white. Swan Lake gives huge ruffled snow-white blooms and is the one to grow if there is a wedding in the diary. Show Bench Mix completes the box with a range of colours bred for the longest stems of all.
How to Grow
Sow in October–November for the biggest earliest plants and overwinter them in a cold frame, or sow January–April indoors. Use deep root trainers, pinch out the tips at 3–4 pairs of leaves and plant out in rich, well-manured soil in full sun. For the very longest stems, grow a few plants as cordons: one stem per plant, tied to a cane, with the side shoots and tendrils removed. Once they flower, pick every day to keep them coming. Full instructions are printed on every packet.
Five full-sized packets in our signature eco-friendly packaging — a gift for anyone who loves armfuls of flowers for the house. For the most fragrant varieties, see The Sweet Pea Collection.
