There are many different types of peas from which to choose. There are the traditional shelling or English peas, the edible podded snap and snow peas, and even varieties particularly well-suited for producing edible pea shoots or garnishes.
From this sea of pea possibilities, Johnny's trials and selects only the best performing varieties, then meticulously culls and tests each line, to offer highest-quality pea seed of the following types:
View All Our Pea Varieties…
Through traditional selection and crossing, pea breeders have continued to breed improved varieties and even novel types. 'Sugar Snap' and 'Sugar Ann' are just two prime examples of extraordinary results that come of ordinary methods.
Snap peas differ from shelling and snow peas in that their pods are thicker, rounder, crunchier, juicy sweet, and apart from the string, entirely edible. Though there were commercial varieties as far back as the 1880s, they disappeared from the seed trade, and by the 1970s, there were no snap peas being sold commercially.
The work of pea breeders Dr Calvin Lamborn and Dr MC Parker of Twin Falls, Idaho, brought us the new variety 'Sugar Snap.' Upon introduction in 1979, this cross between a snow pea and a mutant shell pea — which Johnny's regards as still the most flavorful snap pea — earned immediate recognition as an All-America Selections winner.
'Sugar Snap' is a climber, though, producing vines reaching 6 feet or more in height and requiring support. Growers not wanting to trellis their peas desired a bush plant, and just five years later, pea breeders introduced the more diminutive 'Sugar Ann.' A 1984 AAS Vegetable Award winner, 'Sugar Ann's' pods are every bit as plump and sweet as its lofty parent, but its vines are only 24" inches tall, and it matures about a week earlier. Thank you, Calvin and MC Parker!
The Father of the Modern Snap Pea
