The Cupani Sweet Pea was the original wild form found on Sicily. It was a rich
bicolour and seed of it was sent by a Sicilian monk called Father Cupani to Robert
Uvedale of Enfield in England in 1699.

Little was heard of Sweet Peas for a century or so, and by 1800 there were just five
varieties including the pink and white bicolour, Painted Lady. There was little further
development of Sweet Peas until Victorian times when Henry Eckford of Wem,
Shropshire bred grandiflora Sweet Peas in a wide range of colours. They were called
“grandifloras” because they were large flowered compared with the Cupani Sweet Pea
and were noted for their intense fragrance. Captain of the Blues and Queen
Alexandria are two excellent grandiflora Sweet Peas.

In the summer of 1901, William Unwin of Histon noticed something unusual in a
row of Eckford’s pink variety of Prima Donna, which he was growing for cut flowers
to be sent to Covent Garden Market. One plant was producing much larger blooms,
which were also frilly. He saved the seed of this mutation and went on to breed other
colours with larger, frilly flowers. Silas Cole, gardener to Earl Spencer at Althorp in
Northamptonshire, noticed the same in the Sweet Peas he was growing, and named
his ‘find’ Countess Spencer, which is the origin of the term Spencer Sweet Peas.

Throughout the twentieth century, Spencer Sweet Peas were hybridised extensively,
often by enthusiastic amateurs. Winston Churchill is a good example of a Spencer
Sweet Pea from the middle of the century. It is still widely grown.

Two of the greatest Sweet Pea breeders of modern times, Ken Colledge and Charles
Unwin, were great friends. It seems appropriate that the Sweet Pea Ken Colledge
believed to be the best he had ever bred should be called Charles Unwin. It is soft
amber pink on a lemon ground.

From one Charles to another, it was Charles Hanmer who bred and named Unwins
1990 introduction Charlie’s Angel, which rapidly established itself as a favourite
with exhibitors. It is a soft blue Sweet Pea with lavender keels, free flowering and
very sweetly scented. Charlie’s Angel is generally regarded as one of the finest Sweet
Peas of modern times.