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Stewardship history
‘The best way to keep a historic variety alive is to grow and share it.’
Christina Wenger , Exchange lister , recounts why she uprise , save , and shares one special sweet pea plant kind .
In the first third of the twentieth century , the agricultural valley of California were full of unfermented peas grown for seminal fluid , and even though Morse ( of Ferry - Morse ) grow his ejaculate a little further in the south on the peninsula , he maintained his business in San Francisco . This very land where my mansion now stands used to be covered in greenhouses for prime production . mayhap , in the other twentieth century , like in other parts of California , gratifying peas grew plentifully here . And perhaps , in the spring , the whole hill was fragrant with flower . I wish to picture it so .
Whether or not sweet-scented pea grew here in the past times , they grow here now . But the single variety that I choose to develop dates back to 1904 , so it could have been here 100 years ago .
Christina Wenger
fresh pea are among my preferred gash flowers to grow , specially the old varieties that were bred as much for fragrance as for other characteristic . New honeyed pea have comparatively large , ruffly flowers , with many per stem . But , so often , they lack the scent that gives them their name . sometime mixture may or may not be ruffly ( depending on whether they are pre or stake the development of ruffly ‘ Spencer ’ varieties ) , but they ’re dependably fragrant . However , it ’s father harder and hard to find single - named heritage smorgasbord in the United States . semen company now and then betray heirloom mixes , but only a few sources supply named inheritance varieties .
The best direction to keep a historic variety animated is to grow it and share it . That ’s how another seed rescuer and I kept afloat a breadseed poppy that enslave people grew at Thomas Jefferson’sMonticello . When I first received seeds for that plant from Seed Savers Exchange member Patrick Holland , he included this letter :
“ These seeds come from the poppy original [ sic ] grow by Thomas Jefferson on his demesne in Virginia called ‘ Monticello . ’ I first obtained this seed from a phallus some old age back who , herself , obtained it from Monticello . For some years now , the operators of the estate have discontinue its sale . For approximately five eld , as far as I acknowledge , I am one of the only persons ( or the only ) who possesses this seed . It represent an unplowed mountain chain of come contagion that extends back for over 200 years . No one should be burthen with bearing that responsibility alone . [ . . . ] As of this year , there will be only four people forget with this seed , including yourself as one of them . That ’s 200 geezerhood of live history in four [ sic ] hands . ”
Christina Wenger
I grew these poppy and share the ejaculate throughthe Exchangeand my local community of interests , and I bragged about the plants ’ sweetheart until it was pick up by fellow gardeners , then bySouthern Exposure Seed Exchange , and now a few other commercial sources , too . The reference have rename the variety to ‘ Charlottesville Old , ’ but it is the same plant . Holland ’s endeavour of maintaining the plant and deal the ejaculate with me , and then the both of us share it and telling other masses about it mean now lots of people have access to its beauty when it had been almost extinct .
So , since named heirloom sweet pea are harder and hard to find in the United States , and because this general area of the country was once a hotbed of sweet pea felicity , I decided to adopt a miscellany : ‘ Henry Eckford . ’
I prefer this variety because it is a bold reddened - orange , and I love orange thing . It ’s just a slice more orange than runner bean plant blossoms , but a tidy sum more flushed than the color of orange yield . I chose this variety because it is preposterously fragrant , so much so that I can sense it in my whole garden when it flower . And I also chose it because the “ father of sweet pea plant , ” Henry Eckford , felt so connected to this variety that he named it after himself . Eckford released this variety in 1904 , so it looks like one of the last mixture that he develop before he break down in 1905 .
The ‘Henry Eckford” sweet pea is known (and loved!) for the intense color of its blossoms.
I also chose it because there is something about Eckford ’s story that appeal to me . He started out , like many plant the great unwashed do , by workingforother plant eccentric before ending upin chargeof other plant geeks . He had a two - decade - long gig at an estate as a promontory gardener . But he still had n’t bulge developing sweet peas . He did n’t start his sweet pea plant experiments until after his first wife die in childbirth , he remarried , and he left a long - accommodate and stable job . He did n’t start seraphic peas until his world shifted all , and he admit a job I wonder if he had ever antecedently envisage :
“ In 1878 , Eckford was invited to work in the gardens of the lunatic mental institution at Sandywell Park , near Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , turn tail by the doctor William Henry Octavius Sankey ( 1814–89 ) . Sankey was a penetrative amateur hybridist himself , and together they promote seedling of flower store ’s heyday at Sandywell and then , from 1882 , at Boreatton Park , Shropshire , where Sankey moved his asylum . ” ( Urquhart )
grant to Urquhart , Eckford start his geographic expedition of sweet pea in 1879 . He started the sweet pea plant developments for which he became famed while he worked with and for a doc at the “ lunatic asylum . ” There is so much more I desire to make love about that story .
Eckford ’s variety ‘ Bronze Prince ’ was the first to catch the attention of the garden world of the time , and for it , he won a Royal Horticulture Society laurels in 1882 . ‘ Bronze Prince ’ has disappeared through time and account . There are n’t even any images of it , agree to a blog on The Gardens Trust web site titledThe Sweet Pea and Its King . By its name alone , ‘ Bronze Prince ’ sounds like a bloom I wish I could have met .
I did n’t get to come across ‘ Bronze Prince , ’ but I am lucky to have a go at it Henry Eckford ’s self - named variety . I think I might also love a small something about the man from the industrial plant he choose to name after himself . It ’s a loud , comical color . It get sunburned easily . For a angelic pea , it is pretty darn bad , rolling with drought and brushing off the dreaded powdery mildew . It does n’t veil its fragrance , and even though it works well in a vase all by itself , it begin along with others attractively .
Sources : Holland , Patrick . Personal letter . 24 February 2025 .
“ The Sweet Pea and Its King … .”The Gardens Trust , 26 Sept. 2015 .
Taylor , Judith . “Sweet Peas in California : A Fragrant but Fading Memory . ”Pacific Horticulture . get at 16 March 2025 .
Urquhart , Suki . “Eckford , Henry . ”The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , edit by H. C. G. Matthew et al . , Oxford University Press , 2004 , p. referee : odnb/96775 . DOI.org ( Crossref ) .
Christina Wegner of San Francisco , California , life and garden on the top of a mound on the gay side of the city . She presently extend five salmagundi on the Exchange , including the ‘ Henry Eckford ’ sweet pea plant . She originally shared this clause in July 2022 on her blog , A Thinking Stomach .
To lionize Seed Savers Exchange ’s fiftieth anniversary , we are have the work and aspiration of Exchange lister in the " Hope and Practice " serial publication .
SSE has a sweet pea plant for you !
‘ Grandiflora ’ Sweet Pea Mix
This mixture of strongly sweet-smelling , historic unfermented pea plant variety include bicolored and striped bloom . Note : Sweet pea plant are poisonous .
3094 North Winn RoadDecorah , Iowa 52101(563 ) 382 - 5990
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