Gwendoline
The one to grow if you want long stems for a vase without giving up the smell, which most large flowered sweet peas ask you to do.
Most people meet sweet peas through the Spencer types: big waved flowers, four to a long straight stem, the sort that fills a vase properly. The catch is that a lot of them barely smell. Gwendoline is one of the Spencers worth growing precisely because it kept its scent, carrying large ruffled rose pink flowers flushed over a pale ground on stems long enough to cut seriously. It is the practical middle ground between an exhibition variety and an old fashioned one.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Lathyrus odoratus
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Spencer
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Hardy, takes Irish frost
- In Ireland
- Cloche or fleece helps
- Germination
- 10 to 21 days at 12 to 18C
- Sowing depth
- 2cm
- Spacing
- 20cm apart, 30cm between rows
- Height
- 2m
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to flowering
- 14 to 20 weeks
- In flower
- June to September
- Award
- RHS Award of Garden Merit
Sowing and harvest calendar for Gwendoline
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Gwendoline sweet pea seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- Mr Middleton Irish Around twenty named varieties, the deepest range in Ireland Mail order arm of a long established Mary Street shop, carries the familiar named varieties the organic specialists skip. Visit Mr Middleton , Co. Dublin
- Johnstown Garden Centre Irish Over two hundred flower seed lines Third generation family business near Naas with the widest branded range, though popular varieties sell out by midsummer. Visit Johnstown Garden Centre , Co. Kildare
Why it suits Ireland
Sweet peas are a cool season crop that stops flowering in real heat, which is why they do better in Ireland than in most places people write gardening advice about. Spencers in particular hold their flower quality longer in our mild damp summers than in a hot dry one, where the large ruffled petals scorch and the plants shut down in July.
The large flower size does bring one Irish problem: rain. A big waved Spencer holds water where a small grandiflora sheds it, so after a heavy wet spell some flowers will mark and go papery. The answer is simply to pick and clear, which you should be doing anyway.
The second Irish problem is wind, and it is worse for a Spencer because the plants are taller and heavier in leaf. A 2m plant in full growth is a serious sail. Build the support properly and put it somewhere with shelter on the prevailing southwesterly side.
Growing notes
Sow in October for the earliest, strongest plants, or February and March under cover. Root trainers or deep pots, 2cm deep, kept cool at around 15C.
Pinch out the growing tip above the third or fourth pair of leaves unless you intend to grow cordons, in which case leave the strongest single shoot and remove the rest.
Plant out 20cm apart from March, or 25cm if growing on a wigwam where you want air movement through the plants, into ground with plenty of compost or rotted manure dug in. Expect around 2m of growth.
Feed weekly with a high potash tomato feed from first flower and water deeply. Stem length on a Spencer is entirely a function of feeding and watering, and a plant that goes dry produces short stems for the rest of its life.
Cut in the cool of the morning and cut everything, whether you want it or not. Left to set a single pod, the plant starts winding down.
Common questions
What is a Spencer sweet pea?
Spencers are the large flowered, waved or ruffled sweet peas that appeared in the early twentieth century and became the standard exhibition and cut flower type. Compared with the old fashioned grandifloras they have much bigger flowers, usually four rather than two or three per stem, and far longer stems. The trade-off across the group is scent: many Spencers have very little. Gwendoline is one of the ones that held onto it, which is why it is worth singling out.
How do I get really long stems?
Grow it as a cordon, which is what exhibitors do. Restrict each plant to a single stem, remove all side shoots and tendrils as they appear, and tie the stem to a cane, lowering and re-tying it along a wire when it reaches the top. This concentrates everything into flower stems and produces the longest, straightest results. It is fiddly weekly work. Grown normally up a wigwam you will still get good cutting stems, just not exhibition ones.
Does it flower as early as the old fashioned types?
Usually a little later. Spencer types tend to start a week or two behind grandifloras like Cupani, so from an October sowing expect flowers from late June rather than early June. They generally make up for it by flowering more heavily once they start, provided you keep picking. Growing one old fashioned variety and one Spencer spreads the season across the summer.
More sweet peas to consider
Cupani
Heirloom / Old fashioned grandiflora
Grow this if scent is the whole point. Nothing bred since smells better, and small flowers on short stems is the price.
Growing notes and stockistsMatucana
Heirloom / Old fashioned grandiflora
The other great scented bicolour. Choose it over Cupani for slightly larger flowers, but do not bother growing both.
Growing notes and stockistsPainted Lady
Heirloom / Old fashioned bicolour
The prettiest of the old heirlooms and a good scented alternative if the maroon of Cupani is too dark for your border.
Growing notes and stockists