How sweet it is.

These sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus 'Old Spice' blend) began to flower a few days ago. They're heavenly. The scent starts out distinctly sweet before taking a hard, unexpected left turn into a citrusy finish. And I've fallen hard for the color combination on the current blooms, although I expect to see future blooms in other colors. The stems are long enough to keep a perpetually fresh, tiny bouquet in my favorite bud vase: a green glass bottle, née capers jar.

Comments

[avril]

you describe the smell as you would a wine....fabulous!

[Chan S.]

Thanks! The scent really does stimulate the taste buds. I can't get enough of it.

[Stefanie]

I love sweet peas! I grew up in Southern California and along with morning glories they were my favorite flowers. They still are. But where as the morning glories grow like weeds here in my Minnesota garden, I can't get sweet peas to grow more than six inches or produce more than one tiny flower.

[Chan S.]

My batch last year wasn't too successful, either. I started them (a different variety than 'Old Spice') early indoors, then grew them in a window-box type container. They were spindly by the time I got them outside, grew reluctantly, spat up a few small flowers, then gave up in the heat. I said "The heck with this" and grew hyacinth bean in the same box instead for the rest of the summer. Here's what I did differently this year: I planted directly outdoors, using the same box but with the bottom knocked out (so it's a miniature "raised bed"), very early in the season (I think around 4/1), in potting soil liberally amended with composted manure (with more recent feedings of earthworm castings). The sweet peas have really shot up just in the last month, and I'm sure are loving this unseasonably cold weather (the tomatoes, on the other hand, are...peeved, shall we say). There are rumors that 'Old Spice' takes the heat better than other varieties, and of course you need to keep them picked so that they don't stop flowering after going to seed. I'll report back if these fade out once real summer weather gets here.