Wem

This morning I travelled up to Wem in north Shropshire to visit its famous Sweet Pea Show. Wem is widely known as the home of the sweet pea as it was here that Henry Eckford began cultivating new varieties of sweet pea (about 200 by the time of his death in 1905). The Wem Sweet Pea Show specializes in these older (pre 1910) varieties. 

Unfortunately the staging was done on Friday morning, the hottest day of the year, and by today a lot of the exhibits were well past their best. Nevertheless I enjoyed the show and it has re-kindled my interest so I will hope to grow some of the old Eckford varieties next year. My blip shows one of the trade stands with a mixture of Old fashioned and Spencer sweet peas.