Douce Provence peas

I've just been reading DD's recent post on peas and his fantastic method for supporting them. I too have some Kelvedon Wonder to plant this spring but just thought I'd put in a good word for Douce Provence as an overwintering pea.

I planted out two rows in November, not really expecting them to do much if anything at all. Covered both rows with a plastic cloche. Over the winter, we have had three lots of snow, first lot 25 cm, second 50 cm, third, 3 cm. Temperatures down to minus 13ºC on several nights but well below freezing every night. Recent nights down to minus 7ºC, for example. We've had several windy periods of goodness only knows how many kph/mph - enough to blow branches off venerable olive trees.

In the 50 cm snowfall, the plastic cloches collapsed under the weight. I just left the peas there, thinking they were better off being flattened by plastic than exposed to the weather conditions. When the snow thawed, I managed to rescue enough hoops and plastic to cover one row of peas; the other row was left exposed.

The overwintering mangetout I planted at the same time are still alive, but only just. The Douce Provence, on the other hand, are going really strong: both rows are covered with flowers already and there's the occasional pod to be seen. The ones still under plastic are about 30 cm tall (and really heavy with flowers), the others are only about 20 cm tall (max. height according to the packet is 75 cm). I don't have much experience of growing anything, let alone peas, but I reckon their survival is pretty miraculous. I wouldn't last a single night out there!