About Eagle Sweet Peas
The Eagle Sweet Peas stand at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010
In 1992 I was made redundant and decided that if I was going to go into business, now was the best time to start. It was not easy at the start as there was an awful lot to learn, but over the years the business has built into what it is today.
We are a family run business with my wife, son and daughter all helping out in different ways. Over a season we will sow up to 7,000 seeds and can have anything up to 4,000 plants flowering at one time. All our plants are grown in cold greenhouses and poly tunnels and are “cordon” grown. The daily task of taking off tendrils and side shoots and layering the plants is the most time consuming.
A selection of plants in one of our glasshouses
We sow our first batch of seed in late September, the second batch in January and the third batch in March. This gives us a flowering span of late April through to August/ September. Our first show of the season is The Chelsea Flower Show, which is usually the third week in May, and the flowers are blooming well by this time. During the summer season we will also attend The Gardeners World Live Show, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, Wem Sweet Pea Society Show, Tatton Park Flower Show, Shrewsbury Flower Show and Southport Flower Show. Over the years we have received numerous RHS Gold Medals and pride of place are the Chelsea Gold Medals that we have.
We are constantly breeding new varieties and aim to release at least one each year. Each new variety is grown for 6/7 years on our premises to make sure that it is coming true to colour before the seed is sent to New Zealand. We have 25 different varieties grown for us in New Zealand and the seed produced is sent back to us each April ready for the new season. Once back all varieties are “Batch Tested” 3 times to make sure the germination rate is excellent before being packed ready for sale.
Our aim is to provide quality seed with as much help and advise as needed.
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