About 100 years later, Thomas Jefferson grew sweet peas at Monticello. In England in the late 1800s, Henry Eckford bred sweet peas with a greater color range and larger blooms. Silas Cole, gardener to the Earl of Spencer, exhibited the first frilled sweet pea, named Countess Spencer, in 1901. Continued breeding led to bigger, more ruffled flowers in a greater variety of colors, but perhaps with less fragrance. By the early 1900s, there were over 250 varieties.
Sweet peas are available in climbing and dwarf varieties.
They like a cool, moist location, but also need sun. Some people soak seeds overnight before planting to improve germination. Remove dead flowers to encourage blooming. Hollyhocks for show Early European colonists brought single red hollyhocks to America. Hollyhocks were also a popular English garden flower.