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This year I want to grow a few tall climbing peas but I cant find any in the garden centres.(maybe I am not looking hard enough :-[) I would like to grow them up canes like runners. Does anyone know of a good variety that I could try?and the best place to order them from?

Duke

I think climbing peas are mostly heritage varieties, no good for commercial growing of course.
I've had good results from Alderman, started growing them after seeing a recommendation on this forum. I've also got some Telephone, which I think are very similar. If you'd like a few to try, pm me - got spares  ;D

Had a look in my book, it lists 2 that grow to about 5ft.
Both maincrop, Alderman and Sugar Snap. ;D

Thomas Laxton
BRITISH WONDER
GREEN ARROW
Tall Telephone

Lancashire Lad is a tall climbing Purple podded pea

Quote from: Mortality on February 02, 2010, 14:50:12
Had a look in my book, it lists 2 that grow to about 5ft.
Both maincrop, Alderman and Sugar Snap. ;D

Alderman grow to more like 7-8ft in my experience.

Telephon is a lovely pea, but I've never had a heavy crop. Still keep growing it

Also Magnum Bonum, never tried it

http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/2007/12/heritage-veg-summary-2007.html (http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/2007/12/heritage-veg-summary-2007.html)

Thanks for all your suggestions. Still  trying to find Lancashire Lad as the purple flower sounds nice. Nickys Seeds sell Alderman so I might give that a go.


http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/catalog/shopping_cart.php?SASSpage=http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/veg3A-peas.htm

Duke :)

QuoteThomas Laxton
BRITISH WONDER
GREEN ARROW
Tall Telephone

These are not easity available this side of the salty pond.

Heritage seed library have lots of tall varieties.  

I like purple podded peas.  Great flowers, nice as mangetout and decent peas.  If you like mangetout swiss giant get pretty big.  

One of the italian seed companies do Telfono, it's a tall pea

chrisc

Have a look at http://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html

Digeroo here are some links to uk sources for seeds varieties I listed.
you really need learn to use a search engine.
Thomas Laxtonhttp://www.seedfest.co.uk/seeds/peas/peas.html (http://www.seedfest.co.uk/seeds/peas/peas.html)
GREEN ARROWhttp://www.wholesale-pots.com/acatalog/pea_seeds_uk_vegetable_seed_thompson_and_morgan.html (http://www.wholesale-pots.com/acatalog/pea_seeds_uk_vegetable_seed_thompson_and_morgan.html)
Tall Telephonehttp://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html (http://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html)

Duke,

I have the Desiree, had them last year- please remind me to sow them!!  I wondered about the Golden Sweet - yellow mange tout with two-toned blue flowers!  I have no idea what they taste like!  Just intrigued!

http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/acatalog/A-Z_of_Vegetables_PEA.html#a0232C

T.x

I grew the yellow mangetout and liked them but OH said they looked insipid in the stir-fries so they were discontinued...
I have Lancashire Lad, Purple Podded, Magnum Bonum and others... Magnum is my favourite...
:)

Quote from: Tulipa on February 02, 2010, 17:08:45
Duke,

I have the Desiree, had them last year- please remind me to sow them!!  I wondered about the Golden Sweet - yellow mange tout with two-toned blue flowers!  I have no idea what they taste like!  Just intrigued!

http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/acatalog/A-Z_of_Vegetables_PEA.html#a0232C

T.x

I wonder what theyre like if you let the peas develope  ;D

If you grow Alderman make sure you keep fastening them to some support. I forgot, and when they were about 4 or 5 ft high and they sort of folded back on themselves and made picking almost impossible!

Quote from: Mortality on February 02, 2010, 17:16:19

Quote from: Tulipa on February 02, 2010, 17:08:45
Duke,

I have the Desiree, had them last year- please remind me to sow them!!  I wondered about the Golden Sweet - yellow mange tout with two-toned blue flowers!  I have no idea what they taste like!  Just intrigued!

http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/acatalog/A-Z_of_Vegetables_PEA.html#a0232C

T.x

I wonder what theyre like if you let the peas develope  ;D
[/quote

Indifferent... the flowers are lovely, the peas OK, as Mangetout great but the colour doesn't suit a lot of dishes..

And they grow taller than it says on the packet! I had just that last year with some of my Gradus. The packet says up to 4 feet, so I put in 5 foot high netting - they grew to 6 or 7 feet and folded themselves in two!

Quote from: Trevor_D on February 02, 2010, 17:21:54
And they grow taller than it says on the packet! I had just that last year with some of my Gradus. The packet says up to 4 feet, so I put in 5 foot high netting - they grew to 6 or 7 feet and folded themselves in two!

eek, im goning to be growing 'Onward' in the back garden, my book says 2.5 ft please tell me thats about right  :D

Alderman's easy to come by, and Kings are as cheap as any. You can get Ne Plus Ultra and a purple-podded variety here: http://www.mammothonion.co.uk/shop/7/index.htm. their Alderman is relatively expensive. Magnum Bonum, another good one, can be obtained here: http://brownenvelopeseeds.com/index.php/shop/

'Show Perfection' is my favourite tall pea, I get mine from Robinsons and grow them up wigwams. Very good cropper and you get about 11 peas per pod, very sweet.

I love Golden Sweet for looks when it is flowering, but found the peas mealy and tasteless I'm afraid.... :-\

QuoteI wondered about the Golden Sweet - yellow mange tout with two-toned blue flowers!

I grew some of these from Real seeds, not very impressed but I think I started them off rather late not sure they liked the warm spell.  Though I understand if you manage to cross them with a purple podded one you can get red pods and I would really like to achieve that.  See the blog by Daughter of the Soil.

Quoteyou really need learn to use a search engine.

Whoops.  Looks like you are right there.

I notice that seedfest no longer sell individual packets - only veg collections at 39.99  :o, and that Green Arrow are not climbing peas - only grow 28 - 30". Perhaps we all need to be careful with search engines  ;D

Quote from: Digeroo on February 04, 2010, 21:36:15

Quoteyou really need learn to use a search engine.

Whoops.  Looks like you are right there.

Or you could just keep posting here! That's the nice thing about a forum rather than a boring old search. Here you get real knowledge and experience on taste, cropping, care, as opposed to sales sites, wikipedia..... :D

Quote from: Digeroo on February 04, 2010, 21:36:15

QuoteSee the blog by Daughter of the Soil.

http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/

Wow thats a pretty looking pea, glad you said about that site, ty

Real Seeds now Have Champion of England, and claim it can reach ten feet! I believe Telephone, which they also have, is virtually identical to Alderman, but I haven't compared them myself.

I agree Golden Sweet are gorgeous when growing and the pods are really easy to see and pick, athough they are not my favourite mange-tout to eat. I'm going to try Winterkefe this year.

I really like Simpson's Special and Alderman is good too. I prefered Purple Podded to Lancashire Lad, just that bit sweeter, but I would be happy to grow either again.

If you have not already found some, I've got a few Lancashire Lad and Golden Sweet spare if you would like a few to try Duke

These are the ones I would really like to grow.

http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/2008/07/red-podded-pea-update.html

I tried it this year without success.  I fertilised my yellow podded with purple podded and carefully marked the flowers and some pesky mouse ran off with the seeds!!! :-\

I grew a wall of purple podded last year to keep out the north west wind, they are very hardy.  The effect was stunning.  Great too for  grazing on the peas of a morning.

What did you grow them up Digeroo?  My attempt at tall peas last year were quite pathetic - didn't like canes and string and then blew over in the wind.

And....how do people protect the tall ones (the mature pods not the baby plants) from birds?

Quote from: Digeroo on February 05, 2010, 19:01:07
These are the ones I would really like to grow.

http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/2008/07/red-podded-pea-update.html

I tried it this year without success.  I fertilised my yellow podded with purple podded and carefully marked the flowers and some pesky mouse ran off with the seeds!!! :-\

I grew a wall of purple podded last year to keep out the north west wind, they are very hardy.  The effect was stunning.  Great too for  grazing on the peas of a morning.

Wow those red pods are beautiful, her blog is so interesting and certainly infectious.

The one I really want to try is Kent Blue; I probably need to join HSL to get it. It's the only one I've seen apart from the Carlin Pea which looks like a medieval type, so it's interesting from a historical point of view.

PS I just did join. I noticed they had Carlin Pea as well, so that's two birds with one stone.

See if you can contact her through her blog, maybe she would let you have some Kent Blue. I can't seem to find it any where else, except maybe the american source she got it from.(actually the american source bit could be wrong)

Early on all my peas were protected by plastic bottles.  My first year growing PPP I had quite a show of flowers and suddening a pigeon discovered the feast and stripped the lot.  I was devasted  However I wound cotton between the canes so that if it was touched all the canes started moving.  This seemed to discourage them and I was delighted to find that the plants produced more shoots lower down and after quite a short time I was back in peas. 

I also rigged up a plastic bird of prey.  Simply the outline on a piece of plastic stuck to a yogurt pot. 

I have more problem from mice who I have found climbing almost 2 metres off the ground. 

Quote from: Digeroo on February 07, 2010, 10:13:11

I have more problem from mice who I have found climbing almost 2 metres off the ground. 

That I think will also be my problem, we occasionally get mice in the house and I'm betting there will be plenty in the garden.  :-\