Owl's Acre Sweet Peas at RHS Hyde Hall

‘Ethel Grace’ and ‘Olive D’, above, grow beautifully together against a stormy sky at RHS Hyde Hall in Chelmsford, Essex. A number of seed producers were invited to send in sweet pea cultivars for Hyde Hall’s 2021 Sweet Pea Festival, and we are delighted to be amongst those represented. Our new introduction ‘Ullswater’ can be seen below, it’s clear blue flowers combining attractively with Fothergill’s ‘Mayflower 400’. The plants have been grown from a direct sowing in October under fleece, and trained over wigwams.

Our new offering, Rudbeckia ‘Viviani’ has also made an appearance at Hyde Hall this summer! This sunny Rudbeckia is guaranteed to bring some joyful colour to your garden: Rudbeckia Viviani

New Introduction - Ullswater

I am delighted to introduce to our online catalogue an exclusive new variety, ‘Ullswater’, which has been selected by Simon Crawford on behalf of Owl’s Acre Seeds.

‘Ullswater was discovered as a chance mutation in a row of Windermere. It was a distinctive pure mid blue, shining like Ullswater on a warm summer afternoon when viewed from the top of Helvellyn. The plant differed essentially from Windermere in its colour, the flower size is slightly larger but the stem length and plant vigour are almost identical. It was such an outstanding individual plant we decided to take seed and grow it out again in 2020 to check whether the stock was uniform, which it has proved to be. We are extremely pleased to introduce Ullswater as offspring of Windermere, an attractive dark blue with a slight bicolour effect, which was a Bolton introduction in 2002.’

You can find ‘Ullswater’ seeds for sale here.

Ullswater

Lake Windermere, with a subtle violet flush

Lathyrus tingitanus

I thought I would share some pictures of ‘Lathyrus tingitanus’, also known as the ‘Tangier Pea’, which is climbing enthusiastically over the low chicken wire fence that borders my parent’s vegetable patch in East Yorkshire. This species of wild pea tends to grow as an annual in the UK, and is a native of Southern Europe and North Africa. Needless to see, these cheerful magenta flowers love a fairly sunny spot, well drained soil and are very heat tolerant. L. tingitanus has a very mild fragrance. It can be encouraged to climb over a support, or scramble providing some bright ground colour. Seed will be available again in the shop in September, along with some of our other ‘Sold Out’ species!

Many of our customers will be pleased to see that the exquisite Lathyrus nervosus, ‘Lord Anson’s Pea’, is already back in stock after a fairly lengthy absence. You can learn more about this species and pick up a packet or two here.

Devon Sweet Peas in their Prime

When I visited my crop of sweet peas this morning I was stunned and delighted by their exuberance and beauty. They are in a full flush of flowering, strong and healthy with plenty more buds developing for blooms well into the summer. It had been wet over night and beads of rain were glistening over the flowers enhancing their many hues and shades, so I indulged in some photography before getting on with weeding and tying up. These sweet peas have been grown entirely outdoors in South Devon, UK. We had a very hot dry May, but since then there has been fairly generous rain interspersed with warm sunny spells. We have another crop in Yorkshire, growing under glass.

The image above shows Nimbus in the foreground. See below for photos of Gwendoline, Mollie Rilstone, Oban Bay and Valerie Harrod. Seed will be harvested in late summer, and new stock should be available from September.

View fullsize

Gwendoline

View fullsize

Mollie Rilstone

View fullsize

Oban Bay

View fullsize

Valerie Harrod

New Additions to our Range

I’m delighted to be stocking a few new varieties in our ‘Ornamentals’ range. For a while now we have been offering some unusual Primula varieties, including a number of Hose-in-Hose types. Thanks to the perseverence of Primula breeder and enthusiast Dr Margaret Webster, we are now introducing the first Hose-in-Hose Cowslip (Primula veris) to be available as a true breeding type from seed. From the product page: ‘The Hose in Hose Cowslip was first recorded by John Gerard in his herbal of 1597 and later illustrated by Parkinson in his ‘Paradisi in Sole’ in 1629. This exquisite and naturally occurring flower variant holds its blooms in a charming one-sided cluster in the same way as the usual cowslip. The Hose in Hose character causes the sepaloid tissue of the calyx to be transformed into petal tissue with the appearance of one flower inside the other. ‘ The Cowslip is a beautiful plant for the wild meadow and garden. The seeds are best sown in the autumn for flowers the following spring. You can buy seeds HERE.

You will also now find ‘Echinacea Sundress’ among our offerings.,This is a white petalled Echinacea selected for winter hardiness in South Holland, which will perform well in both borders and containers. (please see the image below). Echinacea is a member of the daisy family, and is native to North America where species such as E. purpurea and E.angustifolia have long been used medicinally as tonics for the immune system. Also known as ‘Cone Flower’, these stunning plants with their large and colourful flower heads have become popular garden ornamentals the world over. The seeds can be sown in autumn or spring for summer flowers. You can buy seeds HERE.

Uncertain Times - a Coronavirus update

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted an update, and now in this time of crisis and solidarity I feel particularly strongly to reach out to everyone who supports Owl’s Acre Seeds, as a customer or simply as an admirer of the beautiful sweet pea and all the plant seeds we offer. I would like to reasure anybody ordering at the moment that we are observing strict hygeine procedures when handling and packing seed - it’s pretty much a single person process from receiving an order to getting it in the post. For now we are fit and well and open for business but should that change I will post news and information on a banner on our home page. My thoughts are with those may of us whose lives and livelihoods are becoming more unstable and uncertain, and I pray that you all have good communities around you and company in times of loneliness and fear.

I am posting a picture of some late sown sweet peas that are just beginning to open their first leaves…they have been holding them tightly closed for a couple of weeks and finally a change in temperature, or maybe the lengthening days, is coaxing them to emerge. These plants will all be for friends and growing experiments…I’m not even sure what varieties are in there now, a surprise mixture! Needless to say I am nourishing myself with time outside, weeding various gardens and getting plants in for the warmer season to come. Regardless of what is consuming us in the human world, Spring is faithfully unfolding around us and it gives me deep solace to hear the birds singing their joyful songs and to watch the wild weeds filling the hedgerows again. There is wonderful medicine for the soul here, and I wish you all the grounding, peaceful happiness of a garden well tended and seeds lovingly sown for a bright time ahead.

Sowing a Summer Garden

The winds are picking up and finally we have some proper wet weather here in southern England. It’s been cold too, with night temperatures consistantly dropping below zero last week, and some hard frost reaching up into the tree branches. Now is the ideal time to start planning your sweet pea garden for next year, and getting some seeds sown. Many growers sow in November indoors, overwintering the young plants in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. This gives the plants a good strong vegetative start before floral initiation, and the chance to develop vigorous roots. This is also the later end of the window for sowing Winter Sunshine varieties, which initiate flowering as early as late March, and need as much time over the winter as possible to get going. With the Spencer varieties, I also get a fantastic crop from a late January sowing, with flowers typically from July onwards, and sweet peas can still get a good start from sowings well into March.

Nora Holman and Lynn Davey

‘Lynn Davey’

These two elegant ladies are finally back in stock after a lengthy absence. Lynn Davey is a lavender sweet pea of considerable quality bred by E. W. James, which was awarded the AGM by the RHS in 1993, and an F.C.C. from the SNSPS. The flowers are well presented and are resistant to 'blueing' as they age, making this one of the best lavender sweet peas for cutting.

Bred by Pip Tremewan, Nora Holman is a light salmon pink sweet pea that won him the F C Harriss award for the best seedling of 1990. It won the Clay Cup in 1994 and 1995 and was the fourth most popular exhibition sweet pea of the 1990s. A distinguished variety recommended for both exhibition and garden.

Nora Holman

Blues Back in Stock

At last the seed harvest is making it’s way into packets and out into the world! I’m delighted that the beautiful blue varieties ‘Bristol’ and ‘Oban Bay’ are now available again. Bristol is a soft powder blue and Oban Bay a paler, ice blue shade. Both are deliciously fragrant and have a excellent track record on the exhibition bench. Find out more and purchase seed in the product pages.

Late Summer Flowers

My sweet peas have decided to put in a second flowering this year, so I am enjoying an abundance of fragrant blooms as I harvest the many seed pods that are also adorning my plants. I was recently given a beautiful hand made silk dress that makes me feel quite like a sweet pea when I wear it - so here is a photo of me communing with the refined lightness and elegance of these flowers. In the posy are Oban Bay, Mollie Rilstone and a few Limelight.