Pea 'Hurst Greenshaft'

The pea for anyone who has eaten a pod straight off the plant and suddenly understood why gardeners bother. Hurst Greenshaft is the British maincrop classic — long dark pods with nine or ten sweet peas in each, an RHS Award of Garden Merit, and nothing showy about it whatsoever.

The name is descriptive rather than romantic. Pods are carried in pairs at the top of the plant rather than buried in the foliage, which makes picking a genuinely pleasant job — no hunting, no missed pods going woody out of sight. Once your eye is in you can strip a row in minutes.

It also carries useful resistance to fusarium wilt and downy mildew, the two things most likely to spoil a pea crop just as it comes into picking. If peas have struggled in your ground before, this is the one to try.