St. Thomas Purple Snow Pea (Pisum sativum)
This beautiful and tasty snow pea has deep purple color and a fascinating story!
Origin: Between 1856 and 1863, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel cultivated approximately 28,000 garden pea plants (Pisum sativum) in his monastery’s garden in Brno (modern-day Czech Republic). By meticulously cross-breeding these plants and analyzing their physical traits, he discovered the foundational laws of Mendelian inheritance. Gregor Mendel’s pea garden was located in the grounds of the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas (Starobrněnský klášter) in Old Brno, Czech Republic.
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 when University students in Budapest protested against the USSR's Communist influence in Hungary, one of our family friends who was a botanist and researcher at the University of Szeged escaped to Vienna, Austria. Later, when our family fled Hungary, they reunited with their friends near Vienna before emigrating to the US. Their friend, Dr. Kovács, stayed in Austria and later work with a botanist from St. Thomas Abbey in Brno who gave her the parent seed of our purple snow peas from their collection.
We are thrilled to offer this wonderful variety to grow in your gardens!
This snow pea variety produces 2 pods per node of 3-3.5" pods. The flowers are pink to light purple and white and the vines grow to about 30" tall. This is a shorter growing variety than many peas but does still benefit from trellising. The pods have a rich flavor that is less sweet than other pea varieties and is slightly but pleasantly bitter.
(Approximately 30 seeds per packet)
Germination Rate: All of our seed varieties exceed 70% germination and are tested every 6 months.
Planting Instructions: sow 1 seed 1" deep every 2" as soon as soil can be worked in spring. No thinning required. Full sun to part-shade. We recommend trellises and tomato cages or bamboo tepees work great!
