I always find Sweet Pea a welcome garden plant with an overpowering fragrance that can fill a summer afternoon. Sweet Pea is a climbing plant that must be trained along rods of bamboo or some form of netting or chord. The plants produce tendrils that will entwine around these climbing frames. They will generally flower in abundance from July to September in colours that vary towards reds and purples with many shades of pink, orange and violet. Unlike most plants, Sweet Peas are hermaphrodites in that they possesses both male and female organs on flowers of the same plant so they can be pollinated by insects visiting a single plant. New seeds can ...  Read the complete review

Introduction   Amongst the utilitarian atmosphere of my "mainly for veg" garden, I have made a few concessions for plants that can't be eaten but instead please the eye and nostrils.  Actually, I haven't made these concessions, my wife has forced my hand by threats of violence into mixing some aesthetically pleasing plants amongst the herbs and veggies!  One such plant that I grow for purely the look and smell of them are sweet peas, they look great and smell sweet enough to get your taste buds tingling - don't eat them though!   Background   Thought to come from the eastern Mediterranean area, they are now spread throughout the ...  Read the complete review

Each day over the last few weeks I've had a room full of delicately balanced aroma far more subtle and consistent than any shop-bought air freshener. I'm talking about one of Nature's own special perfumes, the scented Sweet Pea, or Lathyrus to give it its Latin name. When picked early in the morning, stood up to the flower's neck for a short while and then placed in a vase, these gorgeous flowers will scent a room all day and most of the next. There are many varieties of Sweet Pea and each has it's own scent, but most are fresh and quite delicate reminding me of cottage gardens and my late mother's garden in particular. Once the cut flowers start to ...  Read the complete review

Now that the sun has started to shine I am spending a lot more time in my garden. I love strongly scented, colourful plants and for me the sweet pea is one of the best! Sweet peas are easy to grow, provide lots of colour and have the most gorgeous fragrant flowers imaginable. How to grow. ************ It is possible to buy established plants but I always grow sweet peas from seed, as it is very easy to do. Seeds are widely available and can be sown from late autumn onwards. I usually sow my sweet pea seeds in about February. My children really enjoy helping to sow the seeds too. I use several deep plastic pots filled with a good potting compost, ...  Read the complete review

What reminds you of summer? For me one of the things that reminds me of summer are the flowers in the garden, the perfume that lingers on the air as the long days turn to dusk and a velvety night falls. I do like to be outside in the evenings watching the sun go down and the moon, sometimes a huge golden globe in the sky rise, to light the garden with little pools of brightness in the dark. One of the scents of summer for me is the very sweet perfume of Sweet Peas, or Lathyrus odoratus, to give them their proper name. So, what are they? Little round green things, eaten with a knob of butter and roast lamb on Sundays? No, ...  Read the complete review