Elisabeth x Kent Blue Pea

Elisabeth x Kent Blue Pea F1

These gorgeous flowers are of a hybrid pea I grew last summer, the cross I made is Elisabeth x Kent Blue F1. The rich colour of the flowers indicates the input from Kent Blue, which has beautifully dark flowers and take on a bluey hue -hence the name. I'm looking in part to see flower colour combination in the F2's, also pod tenderness and as an after thought, pea vine length. 

Flowers were born mostly in pairs, and splashes of burgundy could be seen in the leaf joins, indicating flower colour.

Coloured leaf axis

Dark maroon  flower colour

Eight peas forming

These plants grew well, likely from hybrid vigour. They gave a good set of green pods, the young peas can be seen in the pod when held against the light. Taste was good as a raw mangetout, pods being tender although I only sampled one or two to allow most of the pods to mature and save the peas for next year's crop.

Below some of the podded peas, now F2 seed which is quite varied in colour and type, with round and wrinkled, lighter and darker colours some speckled too. 

Something I hadn't previously considered, the difference in pea pods at F1? But here it would seem two sorts. Both types are fairly thin shelled, though those on the right were the thinner of the two and felt 'softer' to the touch. They also had a slightly raised crinkly look and feel. Similar results to Elisabeth x Llanover F1