Peas, peas, peas...info please!!

[Jeannine]

I am chuffed to say thanks to the generosity of A4A friends I have become the proud owner of a wee pea collection..and I am getting fast hooked.

The more I read, the more I want, such is being a seedaholic I expect.

I am sorting my treasues for sowing and trying to find info at the same time so would apprecite any help on the following regarding flower and pod colour and height.Some are marked as tall but how tall is tall?

Jeyes
Mr Bounds bean pea
Ostgotaart
Kools Langstro Rosyn
Robinson
Wieringer Witte

Also what is the difference between Telephone and Tall telephone please.

I have done a days worth of googling but still am coming up short on the above few.

Really really interested in hearing about other peas too.I am far too interested for my own safety but cannot resist. They are becoming a fascination!!!

Thank you all in advance.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

[goodlife]

I know how you feel about peas...I've had same addictive feelings towards peas too ::)
About telephone peas..over the years there is been several sports separated from the original telephone-pea that dates to late 1800's.
But what generally goes around is that Telephone is tall pea and Tall Telephone is even taller...realseed sell the 'tall' version mentioning some people reporting back them been up to 10ft tall..where as 'just' Telephone normally reach 6-8ft.
It is bit confucing as from the original strain there is other Telephones too...Small Telephone, 18-20" tall, Thomas Etty sells Tall Telephone, 3-4ft tall ::)
Which ever version they are...they'll climb ;),,looks like you just have to trial if yours truly is Tall, just tall or short Tall Telephone peas ;D
We need now the info from the source of the peas.

[saddad]

Tall just means needs large supports so 5-10' is a range. Robinson and  Mr Bounds I have grown and both get beyond 7' for me... site and water have a great influence on how tall "tall" peas get..  :)

[manicscousers]

we bought some colossus plants from victoriana nursery last year, on line. they grew to the top of an eight foot support and fell over, lots of lovely tasting peas which I was quite surprised at. I've saved some seed but want to try the germination before I offer any on here, also have 'mummy' peas  ;D
lovely taste but you have to pick them when they're ready  :)
our telephone were 5' tall last year

[galina]

Pea height is very dependent on environmental conditions.  

One of the varieties I swapped originally came from a lady from very high up in the mountains in Colorado.  The pea is Dwarf Grey Sugar.  The growing advice was - these are tiny, no staking needed.  She passed her harvested seeds on to a seed friend in Maine, coastal and much further North.  In Maine they grew to over 2 feet tall and needed staking.  The seedsaver from Maine sent me some of her harvested seed.  Britain further north again.  Yes you've guessed it - they grew to over 4ft tall and needed substantial stakes.  Peas are very sensitive to light levels, further North, especially sown early, they grow and grow, in the glaring sun of Colorado, they stay much smaller.  As Saddad said, water also matters - Colorado is very dry, coastal Maine much wetter.

If I sow Jeyes in February, they will grow to 8 ft and more, if I sow them in late March, they will probably make 5 ft and a much poorer harvest overall.  And this is the case with many peas.  Tall shelling peas need their time and will grow huge.  Kool's is reputed to grow over 3 metres tall, but never has for me - my seed donor does live further North than I do.  Anything 'tall' I give at least 6ft of staking.  Robinson are a bit shorter, 4-5 ft suffice here, however they grow much taller for Saddad, see above.  Please bear in mind your relative latitude and sowing time could give you different results.  'Tall' is relative  :)

Telephone and Tall Telephone are both shelling peas, but apparently, they are different varieties.

Jeyes                                  wh           green pods for shelling, eating freshly shelled
Mr Bounds bean pea              p              green pods, very large non-sweet shelling peas
Östgötaärt                          wh            green pods for shelling, sweet peas flat and elongated, 'teardrop' shaped
Kools Langstro Rosyn            wh            green pods, large non-sweet shelling peas
Robinson                              wh            green curved pods, extra long, sweet shelling peas
Wieringer Witte                    wh            green pods, drying pea, non-sweet, beige coloured  for soups etc

Wish you good success with your peas.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They vary a lot according to local conditions. I've grown Kool's, Mr Bound's and Robinson (one of my favourites), and find six foot poles are about right. I grew a few Hugh's Huge last year, and they reached about eight feet, but they weren't dangling enough to be a problem.

[Jeannine]

Ooh thank you so much,I needed the flowerc colour as I am a bit nervous I mix them up on my small patch and thought that might help,, super info Galina.

So many varieties.. can someone point me in the right direction to find more or do I  have to do swaps to get some of them..I always get confused because of the "the list" in the UK. Are there any sellers out there.?

XX Jeannine

PS, I have two peas bought here that have different heights in catalogues, one is Mr Big and one is Dwarf Sugar, a real mystery as Mr Big can be 3 feet or 6 feet deending on the catalogue..

[saddad]

My Mr Bounds and Robinson are HSL and so not legally on the list...  :-\

[galina]

Jeannine,

Jeyes and Östgötaärt are also from Heritage Seed Library, the others were from a swap with a Dutch seedsaver.   The Heritage Seed Library has many tall varieties because these are getting very rare in seed catalogues.  

To us 'Mr Big' pea is unknown, but will be grown on several plots this year thanks to you, Jeannine.  Swapping is a very good way of making unusual varieties more widely available, but it takes time.

There was a thread about Seed Shopping Sites a little while ago
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,62941.0.html
and this lists the lesser known UK and several European seed companies.  A look there might be rewarding, because several European countries have small envelope exceptions for heirloom varieties.  For example, one of the first seed firms mentioned, the French Graines Baumaux Company, lists pages of pea varieties, most unknown here.  The European seedlist is not as restricting on heirlooms as it is often portrayed because of these exceptions.  Very recently the restrictions have been significantly relaxed regarding heritage seeds which means in principle we could see many more pea varieties in mainstream seed catalogues soon.  

Manicscouser, Colossus sounds very good and is definitely old and very rare.  Hope your seeds are ok.

[goodlife]

Jeannine....I think lot of us are growing quite few different sort this year for seed saving..well I do..so you are welcome to share once I've got supply's.... ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've got most of mine either from swaps or the HSL. There are a few places which stock interesting varieties; I can recommend Bijou, Serpette Guilotteau and Champion of England from Real Seeds.

[Jeannine]

Thank you Robert, I had a conversation with Realseeds and they will send to me, they are waiting for Champion to come in as they had sold out so next week I shall be getting an order plus a few other things.

XX Jeannine