Hi Iris - I have a bunch of heirloom tomatoes and some other stuff from your wishlist and would like to trade for your hollyhocks and gaillardia. Email me directly and I'll send you my list - Doreen.

Yes, it does resemble a now pea. But the snap pea should be round, especially if the peas have swollen at all. Some of mine do this as well. I haven't noticed any problem with them, the taste and texture are just fine.

"I have a line of Sugar Magnolia that gives quite a few hyper-tendril plants. I would breed away from this trait, it has too many negatives for overall production." Glad to hear someone has tried that variant before I did. What were the negatives? Low yield per plant is not necessarily a negative, nor is the hypertendril trait, if the plants are short enough to plant without support. As long as you don't mind bending over to harvest, that is. I grow "Sugar Lace", which is also hypertendril. The plants are short & support each other, which makes them suitable for wide rows. It is the only PVP vegetable that I grow, which given how I feel about patenting food plants, shows how much I enjoy the pod quality. I've ruled out trying the parsley trait, I already grow one of Alan's parsley leaf shelling peas, (also purple, perhaps from the same breeding program) and it is "not ready for prime time", so to speak. The plants tend to topple in a strong wind or when loaded with pods, leading to too much pod damage. Still trying to select it for something useful, but since I only grow it every other year or so, progress is slow. All else being equal, though, I prefer pole varieties of almost anything where I have that choice. It makes harvest easier, and keeps the pods further out of reach from bugs & rodents. The downside of that is having to set up & tear down trellises, and having to spend time training reluctant climbers.

Yes, plant thick. I have a few varieties that always do well and trying a couple more this year. Sugar Ann and classic Sugar Snap do well for me. I plant, direct seed, my first double row as soon as i can work the soil, then again the next 2-3 weekends, a week apart-ish. (wet rough weather will sometimes keep me out of the garden). If i relied on just one of those plantings i may not see one pea. Seeds are cheap and the harvest can be buckets full. Once the weather warms, in go my pole beans right behind the peas, in, again, a three week planting, but way less thick. As they are getting a footing, the peas start to brown and crisp and pull out with ease. Planting a few varieties, (i go overboard with 15-20), will give lots of peas and beans as they have different growth times. Early on i had given up on peas for a few years thinking i had the wrong climate but now that i 'insurance' plant i get enough to give plenty away. I get all my peas from Johnny's. And a random pack here and there if i can't help myself from the nursery racks...those racks seem to have a 'buy me' magnet. I try not to look...