The *NEW* 2019-20 RP Sweet Peas catalogue should be through your letter boxes very shortly to all UK and Ireland customers. All overseas customers can download a PDF version of the catalogue direct from our website. www.rpsweetpeas.com This year the catalogue front cover features Roger’s wife, Alison with new variety named after her ‘Alison Louise’. Alison Louise is a bright blue multiflora spencer type with exceptionally long stems. We predict this will be very popular with cut flower growers. We hope you enjoy browsing this year’s catalogue.

A good plant conservation story and some publicity for us in today's Country Life magazine. Having a visit from Lady Penny Mountbatten was delightful.

The Crowood Press

Didn't know about this article. What a lovely surprise.

Country Life Magazine

Just thought I would mention that Roger Parsons Sweet Peas should be in the 24 July edition.

I had a wonderful day yesterday attending Hampton Court as Plant Heritage honoured me with the prestigious Brickell Award. This was awarded to me for my work on Lathyrus as holder of the National Collection and for being awarded Scientific National Collection status in 2018. It is a great honour and we had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Photos from Roger Parsons Sweet Peas's post

I’m very pleased to be included in the July publication of The English Garden magazine with a 4 page spread, available now.

Last year we posted a blog on Bud-drop, this is a update to that blog. Bud-drop is a condition when the young flower buds stop developing, turn paler, frequently turn upright and finally fall off the flower stem to leave a bare stalk. It can be quite alarming for new growers who think it must arise from disease or from birds attacking the flower stems. It is in fact a physiological condition which the plants will quickly recover from without any action required. I have long held the view that, although the exact cause is not known, the condition is associated with low temperatures following a period of hot weather. It is also associated with wide variation in day and night temperatures. This makes it a particular problem in early Summer when high atmospheric pressure leads to daytime temperatures which are quite high but it can be very cold at night, even frosty. Kaoru Nakamura wrote to tell me the experience of Japanese growers is quite different. Japanese Sweet Pea growers crop from mid November till the end of March. They grow in polytunnels which are maintained at a fairly constant temperature 5c to 15c. Yet they still get bud-drop, in fact they find it is worse on milder nights than on colder nights. They associate the onset of bud-drop with a period of cloudy weather following a period of sunny weather. Some research has been done on the causes. The actual mechanism for bud-drop arises from the production of ethylene in a layer of cells at the base of the bud. The Japanese think (but are no more certain than we are) that the lower light levels in cloudy conditions reduce photosynthetic activity so there is less production of "photosynthetic products" in the plant to be distributed to the developing raceme. I then heard from a grower in Cheltenham to say he had bud-drop “during warm and humid weather with a lot of sunshine but not a dramatic dip in night time temperatures - maybe down to 13 or 14c”. These two reports directly challenge my pre-conception about low temperatures being a cause of bud-drop. So, we have two competing approaches to explaining the causes of bud-drop: chemical and temperature The intriguing thing is discovering that the direct cause of bud-drop, ethylene production, arises from a change in the plant’s internal chemistry. Reduced photosynthesis following a change in light levels would also affect the plant’s internal chemistry. On the other hand, a steep fall in temperature would directly affect the rate of metabolism so could also have an impact. We know two other things about Bud-drop. One is that it affects some varieties more than others. ‘Marion’ is the best-known example said to resist bud-drop. If we ask how this could happen, a chemical explanation would be most likely. For example, perhaps ethylene production is more inhibited in ‘Marion’. The other thing we know is that plants grown in raised beds, growbags or pots appear less vulnerable to bud-drop. I have always put this down to having a warmer root system so fitting in with my temperature explanation. Similarly, I advocate watering in the morning when temperatures are rising rather than in the evening when they are falling. I have yet to identify how these experiences could have an impact on the chemical explanation. So what is the practical impact of all this? If the chemical explanation from Japan is correct, feeding with manganese and boron could be a way of preventing bud-drop. Even if the chemical explanation is not correct, or both explanations have a role to play, feeding works for one grower so might be worth trying.

Photos from Roger Parsons Sweet Peas's post

Introducing our newest addition, a mixture called ‘Winter Romance’. By popular request, Winter Romance combines the best Winter Multiflora Spencer varieties into one easy mixture. Available now from our online shop and will be featured in our 2019-2020 catalogue released in August. https://www.rpsweetpeas.com/shop/mixtures/

Photos from Roger Parsons Sweet Peas's post

My Lathyrus nervosus is now in full bloom and looking fantastic!

Roger Parsons Sweet Peas

The Sustainable Flowers Podcast: Sweet Peas with Roger Parsons

You can now hear as a podcast an interview Roger did recently for Clara Qualizza, a Canadian cut flower grower. It lasts 50 minutes but I hope people will find it interesting: http://sustainableflowerspodcast.libsyn.com/sweet-peas-with-roger-parsons

Fran's Favourite – Lathyrus Vernus Lathyrus Vernus is fast becoming my favourite Lathyrus species. Its common name is the ‘Spring Pea’ and it has tiny but vigorous flowers in spring covering a small bushy form. Its compact size makes it perfect for pots and borders. Not only does it have beautiful delicate flowers in pinks, white and blues but there are variety of leaf forms from broad and flat to narrow and pointed. Some with colouring such as the picture below showing Lathyrus vernus ‘Albo-roseus’ with its red outlined leaves. I also think the young seed pods are very attractive and give the plant continued interest after the flowers fade. There is sometimes a second flush of flowers later in the year. They seem to be very tough too which is essential for me! Now is the perfect time to sow Lathyrus vernus for flowering next spring.