Pea Plant - Victorian Colossal Climbing
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Pea Plant - Victorian Colossal Climbing

Pisum sativum 'Alderman'

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Supplied as compost block grown plants.

No other pea will do once you've grown these. The best flavoured pea of them all - try them!

Like many things in horticulture, change has been driven by commercial needs - and with peas this has meant the need for pea varieties that can be harvested mechanically and in one go. We wouldn't like to argue for one minute that there are some lovely and very worthwhile bush peas around (Douce Provence to name but one) - but the reality is if you want heavy crops of fabulously sweet peas over a long cropping period you need to grow an old fashioned climbing pea. The fact that they grow so tall and crop over a long period is the reason why commercially they are just not viable - who would pay the premium price the supermarkets would have to charge?

The flavour of these is sublime - deliciously sweet. The peas themselves are large, plump and juicy - and the yield can literally be massive. But the real benefit is the extended cropping period of these. From sowing you can expect to pick your first peas in about 2½ months - and picking can continue for a month or more. Though described as a Maincrop variety, here on the nursery we sow and grow an early crop under glass then follow this up with an early planting outside of plant started under protection and follow this up with a direct sown crop outside - which gives us peas all Summer long!

As a family we've been growing the variety Alderman since the 1930's - and since the late 1960's when we first started selling this variety we have been very carefully re-selecting from our saved seed to maintain the best vigour and flavour - so there may be cheaper Alderman seeds available, but they are not Victorian Colossal Climbing Peas!

Alderman has been around since the 1890's - and was a favourite of Queen Victoria who grew it at Osborne House. In 2005 and 2006 we supplied seed of our Victorian Colossal Climbing Peas to the Royal Household and these were grown at Windsor Castle. We understand that this is a favourite variety of Prince Charles too who grows these at Highgrove - as featured by Ainsley Harriot, the Champion of peas in the recent BBC 2 Great British Food Revival series.

Our Victorian Colossal Climbing Peas were editorially featured by Garden News on the 22nd October 1977 and referred to as 'Pea Shooters', as our customer Mr Alfred Allsopp of Staffordshire had grown plants 10½ feet (3.15 metres) tall - which were submitted to the Guinness Book of Records. Since then one of our customers has managed to grow plants over 14 feet (4.2 metres) in height! From our own experience a height of around 6 - 8 feet (1.8 - 2.4 metres) is more usual - and easier for picking!

In 2007 they stood above the floods and rain with pride - no mildew - and on saturated soil (as ours was) cropped superbly whereas dwarf peas and particularly those grown commercially either frizzled up in the heat wave of April or drowned in June and July.

No pea gives a better performance - not a bad accolade for a variety that's been around since the 1890's!

• For Growing In Rows
• Set out April to July 9" (23 cm)  apart in rows 3½ - 4 feet (100 - 120 cm). 
• Provide support for these to climb up to a height of around 6 - 8 feet  (1.8 - 2.4 metres) using netting, a bamboo cane structure or similar.

• For Climbing Pea Wigwams
• Using a dustbin lid or similar as a template, drive into the ground six 8 foot (2.4 metre) canes and tie together at the top to produce a wigwam effect.
• Plant at the foot of each cane.

• Top Tips 
• Sow throughout the Summer for continuity of cropping.
• Best results are obtained if a trench is dug in Winter 18" (45 cm) deep and filled with compost, old newspapers, vegetative kitchen waste etc and then topped with soil. Sow on this for a prolonged crop not affected by Summer drought.
• Protect newly sown seeds from mice. Mice are notorious in 'sniffing out' seed of this nature!
• Pheasants love young pea plants and will dig up the plants to eat the sprouted seed so take precautions if you have pheasants in your area.
• Protect young plants from pigeons.
• Young pea shoots are a real delight to eat raw in salads.
• A good precaution to prevent damage from Pea Moth or Pea Weevil is to spray the entire plant (flowers included) with our BioFriend Plant Defence periodically during the flowering period.
• Water well if the weather is dry when the pods are swelling.
• Regular picking will encourage further flowering and subsequent cropping. Peas freeze well so better to pick regularly and freeze any excess as this will keep the plants producing.
• After harvesting dig the plants into the ground to provide green manure and valuable nitrogen to the soil.

Supplied as compost block grown plants.

For a little more in depth information on Pea Plant - Victorian Colossal Climbing you may find the following articles of great use...
What's A Compost Block Grown Plant?
A Little Information About Our Vegetable Plants (Video)

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