Saturday 16 September 2006

Purple-podded pea photo gallery

This is one of the unnamed cultivars of purple podded pea I've been collecting for next year's pea trial. It came from Edwin Tucker in Devon, and I've taken to calling it Rococo because the first place I saw it was the Rococo Garden at Painswick.

Purple podded peas seem to have flowers which constantly change colour as they mature ... you can watch them changing by the hour on some days. They start off creamy white in the bud stage and the wing petal gradually turns pink. By the time the flower opens it's a kind of two-tone purpley-maroon and whitish pink, gradually going more blue as it ages.

The flowers are quite a bluey-purple by the time they start to go over.

And then you get these.

This one is Ezetha's Krombek Blauwschok, one of the only named cultivars of purple podded pea. It dates back to the 19th century, and is noticeably taller and more vigorous than Rococo. This bud is just starting to show the first bit of rosy pink.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i LOVE your photographs.
Very nice blog!

Anonymous said...

Love your blog. Very inspiring!

Dulcie said...

That's the Alberta Centennial Pea! I just bought some last weekend. The seeds are sold by the University of Alberta Devonian Gardens. You can see info about the pea in their seed catalogue:

"2. Alberta Centennial Pea
A very tall growing pea (8 feet), with bi-coloured, rose flowers, producing deep purple pods. These are excellent for eating fresh or cooked, highly ornamental, and are bred in Edmonton."

Website: http://www.devonian.ualberta.ca/

Your photos are beautiful!

canvas prints said...

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