Early history and breeding of sweet peas

The Sweet Pea story all began quietly enough in 1699 when a Sicilian monk, Father Francisco Cupani, sent a few seeds of the wild Lathyrus odoratus to his friend Dr Uvedale in the UK.

The resulting plants grew quietly in the Doctor's garden for the next 20 years until some flowers found their way to the London Flower Market, where their heady fragrance earned them the nickname 'Sweet Pea', and so this humble little creeper was on its way to stardom.

Cupani's original wild selection had a purple standard and a sky blue wing petal. Whilst the direct lineage from this original authentic material can no longer be traced, the Auckland-based Sweet Pea breeder Keith Hammett sourced wild material from Sicily in the 1970s. He reintroduced this wild form as Original as the closest thing on the market to Cupani's original strain. 

All the variety in colour, form and fragrance that was to follow was contained within the genetics of Cupani's original selection from the wild. Breeding development was initially slow, with the release of the pink and white flowered Painted Lady being the first-named cultivar offered in 1731. For the next 100 years, Sweet Peas gained some popularity with English gardeners even though there were only a handful of colours available.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the range expanded to some an extent. Breeders such as Thomas Laxton (famous for his Laxton's Superb Apple) and others were busy in the background while the prolific self-publicist Henry Eckford took centre stage. At the turn of the century, he lifted the Sweet Pea profile across England and networked with American growers so that soon gardeners and breeders across the Atlantic were playing with Sweet Peas too.

Eckford is largely credited with introducing the large-flowered and hugely popular Grandiflora Sweet Peas – so much so that in history, he is known as the 'Father of the Sweet Pea'. Over the next 20-30 years, there was an explosion of varieties on both sides of the Atlantic. By 1918 the Philadelphia based seedsmen, W. Atlee Burpee & Co, offered over 170 Sweet Pea varieties and an array of mixes.

Back in the UK, the next exciting development came at the hands of the Earl of Spencer's Head Gardener, Silas Cole. At the National Sweet Pea Society's first-ever show in 1901, Cole presented (much to the anticipation of the waiting boffins) a variety he named after Princess Diana's grandmother, Countess Spencer. It displayed the unique characteristic of having a waved standard petal. This selection was a breakthrough described at the time thus ... "it seemed as if nature has been so lavish that the material in its standard had to be closely pleated to hold its position. It was beflowered and befrilled". Subsequent breeding from Countess Spencer gave rise to the right Spencer Sweet Pea, with their characteristic wavy standard and open keel in a wide range of colours.

Australian gardeners were particularly keen Sweet Pea growers introducing the locally bred and early-flowering variety Yarrawa by Yates in 1911. This variety formed the foundation of a hugely popular series of Australian Sweet Peas that Yates offered for the next 50 years.