Keith Hammett is one of the world’s leading flower breeders, and I’m delighted to say that a wide range of his sweet peas is now available in Britain for the first time. His talents are many - last week he was awarded the Cory Cup by the RHS for his innovative work breeding new dahlias - now you can buy his unique sweet peas.
The first to cross our familiar sweet pea with other species, Keith used Lathyrus belinensis (discovered in Turkey only in 1987) hoping to work towards a yellow sweet pea. Surprisingly, the result was the creation of reverse bicolours with darker lower petals (the wings) instead of the usual darker upper petals. He’s also created flowers with a more intense blue colouring.
Take a look at the Seed N Grow sweet pea webpage and Keith Hammett’s own sweet pea webpage for pictures of all the varieties.
Seed N Grow are now listing thirteen of Keith’s varieties but unfortunately they’re selling them under new names! The result is that they’re available from Keith in New Zealand under his original names and from Seed N Grow under their new names. The lovely pink and blue reverse bicolour ‘Erewhon’ (above), is also available in Britain under its original name.
Now, a lot of this name changing goes on in the seed trade and over the years I’ve upset (but remained friends with!) a lot of people when I’ve complained about this in print or online. But Alan Leslie, Chair of the RHS Advisory Committee on Nomenclature and Taxonomy told me: “Clarity and consistency in naming is essential if we want to be able refer to plants unambiguously. Renaming plants merely causes confusion and misunderstanding, breaking the link with information about their origins and causing uncertainty about identities.”
Be that as it may, these are superb sweet peas. I’d especially suggest you try what Seed N Grow call ‘Mama Mia’, the unique reverse bicolour (above), ‘Royalty’, in orange with blue veins, and ‘Mother of Pearl’ which opens in mauve shades and changes to vivid blues. These are correctly ‘Erewhon’, ‘Blue Vein’ and ‘Blue Shift’. ‘Erewhon’ is also available in Britain under its correct name from Owls Acre Sweet Peas.
Keith Hammett’s sweet peas represent an impressive step forward, it’s unfortunate that their naming is now becoming so confused. But don’t let that put you off.
‘Erewhon’ is available from Owls Acre sweet Peas
Take a look at Keith Hammett’s sweet peas available in Britain from Seed N Grow.
Take a look at Keith Hammett’s sweet peas on his own website.