New Seed Available

We've got some new Sweet Pea seed in the shop ready for Spring! After many months of waiting, there is now a limited quantity of the gorgeous 'Dark Passion' available - this variety is an unusual dark blue shade, distinct from our other dark coloured sweet peas which have red and purple tones. 

Also back in stock are 'Charlie's Angel', a very popular pale blue excellent for cutting and fragrance; 'White Frills'; 'Windsor' and 'Our Harry'. Find all these and more in the Spencers section of the site. Further new seed is on the way so keep checking back, or get in touch if there's something particular you are after!

'Oban Bay' and 'Mrs Bernard Jones' back in stock!

After a brief absence from our product list, seeds of 'Mrs Bernard Jones' and 'Oban Bay' are now back in stock. Please see below for more details of these lovely Spencer varieties:

Harvesting

As the golden fields of late August are mowed to stubble, and rose hips and hawthorn berries begin to gleam red in the hedgerows, we feel in good company as the sweet pea seed harvest gets well under way. We've got a great crop this year and our evenings are being filled with podding and cleaning the fresh seed. The dry pods are gathered into net bags in the greenhouse so their precious contents won't be lost when the pods burst open. 

Sweet Peas in Devon

I sowed these sweet peas a little late, in April, and they took a little while to get going. They don't have the stature of my earlier sown plants, but are looking magnificent all the less and producing copious, fragrant flowers that are absolutely delicious cut in vases in my kitchen. I made rough growing frames out of tall 7ft sticks collected from my local woodland - lots of hazel and hardwood trees so straight, strong sticks aplenty! I filled these out with smaller twigs and branches pushed into the earth for the young plants to climb up. In the foreground is 'Erewhon', then 'Mrs Bernard Jones'; 'Oban Bay'; 'Noel Sutton' and 'Anniversary'.

Blooms in the Greenhouse

Here is our 2016 crop of Winter Sunshine sweet peas, which have been blooming exuberantly in our East Yorkshire greenhouse since late April. These early flowering varieties are responsive to day length and begin to bloom with the lengthening days of early spring in the northern hemisphere. Owl's Acre also stock Spring Sunshine seed, a beautiful range of sweet peas that flower in the intermediate period between Winter Sunshine and the standard Spencer and Grandiflora varieties. For more information, visit this page.

Foxgloves

Bold and seductive, foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea and related species) always capture my heart at this time of year. They have been elegantly crowding the Devon hedgerows since June, and are finally beginning to give way to tangles of green, early seedheads, wild raspberries and morning glory that signal the maturing of summer. Owl's Acre Seed are now selling seed of two hybrid digitalis species – Digitalis x Martina and Digitalis x Lucas. These varieties are more stocky and branched than the wild varieties, and being sterile will flower for several weeks longer than their woodland cousins. They are perfect for landscape and container planting, and have exciting potential for cut flower applications. Find more information here and buy seed here

Wild foxglove in Penny's Wood, South Devon, June 2016.

Digitalis x Martina in East Yorkshire garden, June 2016.