Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

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Sweet Pea Festival

A feast for the senses at Anne Hathaway's Cottage & Gardens from early July to mid August.

Admire old and new varieties of Sweet Peas in abundance 

Why not grow your own? We stock old fashioned seed varieties from the National Collection of Sweet Peas in our giftshop. These are not normally available from garden centres and other retail outlets.

Here's a taster of just some of the varieties you can enjoy:

MISS WILLMOTT An heirloom Sweet Pea in a beautiful shade of salmon pink, introduced early 1901. Helena Willmott is famous for designing and working on the Cottage gardens in the 19th century 

CUPPANI   A Sicilian monk Cuppani sent seed of the wild Sweet Pea to Robert Uvedale of Enfield more than 300 years ago, and this is where all our modern varieties are descended. The flowers are small, the stems short, the colour combination striking, and the scent irresistible. The 'original' Sweet Pea

PRINCE EDWARD OF YORK A stunning vibrant Sweet Pea with cerise standard and magenta wings - a flower to brighten up any garden. Bred by Henry Eckford in 1897
 
PAINTED LADY The original Painted Lady arose as a sport from 'Cuppani' in about 1730. It had only one or two small flowers per stem, and survived in cultivation at least until 1910

LORD NELSON An heirloom Sweet Pea dating back to 1907 which is a rich navy blue in colour and heavily scented with a height up to 2m

QUEEN ALEXANDRA An heirloom Sweet Pea dating back to 1906, scarlet in colour and heavily scented

PRIMA DONNA An excellent pure pink self-coloured Sweet Pea introduced in 1896

WHITE SUPREME Large, pure white, well scented flowers on strong stems. A well established exhibition Sweet Pea

MATUCANA An heirloom grand flora variety dating from 1543 possibly one of the first Sweet Peas in cultivation and still one of the best available. A strong scented variety with a striking appearance of deep blue flowers with purple wings, sweet scent in the garden or vase as a cut flower
  
ALBUTT BLUE   A white Sweet Pea with blue picotee edge. Waved petals. Outstanding scent

PLUS other varieties including Unique, Chance, Anniversary, Almost Black, Prince of Orange, Pips Maroon, Queen of the Isles, Queen of Harts, Millenium, Honeymoon, Jaqueline Heather, Lady Susan, Anne Hathaway (specially named after the gardens), Sarah Kennedy, Lizbeth, Margaret Hastie, White Frills, Duke of York, Black Knight, King Edward VII, Lady Grisel Hamilton, Violet Queen, Cathy, Annie B Gilroy, Princess of Wales, Restormel, Hannah Magovern, Garry Kirkman and Shelia Murray.

Don't miss out on this wonderful display of colour and scent.