Lathyrus odoratus Noel Sutton

Noel Sutton Sweet Peas

This sweet pea is a real stunner, with its mid-lilac deeply scented flowers, gently ruffled at the edges of the petals, and held on long, sturdy stems. This means not only will they give you months of glorious colour out in the garden, but they're also brilliant for cutting and arranging in vases indoors. In fact, as with all sweet peas, the more flowers you cut, the more flowers you'll get. Leave them to set seed and the plant will slowly stop blooming. So keep snipping! It's an RHS AGM winner, too, so you're pretty much guaranteed a great-performing sweet pea. If lilac's not for you, just take a look at the rest of our range of sweet peas – there are plenty of other colour options. Grow Noel Sutton in a sunny spot in beds and borders, or in a pot, always with a good support system to scramble up. This could be a trellis, a wigwam of canes or hazel branches, or an obelisk, and tie in the shoots, to begin with, to help them get a firm hold and grow well. Other than this, sweet peas (especially seedlings) are really simple to grow, but do remember to keep them well watered - all sweet peas like a good well-irrigated root run or they can suffer from mildew. A good soak with a hose every couple of days in hot weather should do the trick.

A harmonious partnership

Plant Noel Sutton with a couple of other varieties of sweet pea for an even more fabulous show. Its purple flowers look particularly regal paired with ivory white Jilly, or try planting alongside pinky-blue Anniversary for a pairing of similarly dreamy shades. To dial up the scent to maximum, create a border of summer perfume, by planting your sweet pea seedlings with climbers such as honeysuckles or jasmines: just make sure there's a bench nearby so you can linger and enjoy the scent.

Features

• Colour: mid-lilac
• Stem: long
• Height: 1.8m
• Type: Spencer
• Scent: strong
• Flowering: June to September
• Planting Months: March-April
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

50 years on…

Noel Sutton variety was introduced by Suttons Seeds in 1968, and it's been hugely popular ever since. It's one of the most reliably lilac-blue sweet peas.