The Royal Horticultural Society is calling on gardeners to vote and help find the nation’s favourite Sweet Pea.
There are thirty seven different cultivated varieties growing in this year’s sweet pea trial at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey. Voting papers will be available at the trial’s plot.
A subcommittee of the RHS which includes representatives from the National Sweet Pea Society, will carry out ongoing assessments of all the entries during the growing and flowering season. The cultivars that members of the subcommittee decides have excellent flowering habits, flowers of good colour and are true to form will be awarded the charity’s prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
“We really hope that visitors to Wisley will also vote on their favourite sweet pea,” says RHS Director of Horticulture, Jim Gardiner. “This is an excellent opportunity to see a wide range of this wonderful plant in one place, to compare their flowers and colours, and perhaps to choose one that has caught your eye and you might want to grow.”
The Award of Garden Merit is reserved for those plants of excellent garden-worthiness. By choosing an AGM plant gardeners can be sure that it is excellent for ordinary use in appropriate conditions; available; of good constitution; essentially stable in colour and form; and reasonably resistant to pests and diseases.
The RHS will publish the results of the people’s choice at the end of the flowering season. The charity provides information on growing sweet peas on its website; visit http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=464.
RHS Garden Harlow Carr is also growing 35 sweet pea varieties chosen by the National Sweet Pea Society, and the garden is hosting a sweet pea day on July 11for visitors to see the varieties and ask questions