Elisabeth Mangetout Pea

I was gifted Elisabeth by a good gardening friend, Galina and what a delight they have been. They grow beautifully, taste great and look stunning! 

"Elisabeth is a mangetout pea from Switzerland which Elisabeth (my mother) bought. She shared her packet with me. One of the pea flower pairs on my plants had mutated to pink and white. The others were all purple. I marked the pink pair of flowers and grew the seeds separately. The plants are just like the original variety in every respect, with the exception of flower colour, which has remained pink. They are not fasciated like Salmon Flowered. The pods are up to 2 inches long, shorter later in the season and very prolific. Plants are around the 5ft mark, a bit taller this year with all the rain in spring and early summer." Galina

Since receiving them I've been growing these lovely mangetout each year,

Pink Axil

Seeds and dried pods, which are fibreless

I've used these peas in several crosses which I'm in the process of growing out. The cotton tag in the picture shows me this flower has been cross pollinated by another variety. Sugar Beth has Elisabeth as a parent.

Heritage Seed Library Picks 2016

I'm not sure what happened this year, I usually look forward to receiving the seed catalogue from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL) in December. But this winter has been quite a struggle and I just wasn't feeling very well, so all thoughts of planning what to choose was put to one side. That is until I received an email reminding that the deadline for orders was February 26th, which was just a couple of days away. With a cuppa I sat down and went through the list picking out varieties that took my fancy the most. I selected 6 varieties and sent of my request. I wasn't sure if I'd get back any of my first choices at such a late date, usually I put in the request straight away. 

My little parcel arrived a few days later, a really quick response by the HSL team. Four varieties were first choice and two second choice.

Bossingham Longpod broad bean (my 2nd choice, first was Relon)

Tower Hamlets dudi (my 2nd choice, first was Slovenian)

Waley's Pea Bean a climbing French bean.

Hutton Wonder pea

Coopers Bean - a pea. I got this variety in 2014 to try but I've no idea what I did with the packet!

Long Blood Red beetroot, I wet for the name as I've grown Early Blood Turnip and love it.
I also had a bonus packet of Tellus celeriac.