SWEET PEAS

(July 10th grandmother's pitcher) )

 It's time to show you what the SweetPeas have been doing.I guess I wax poetic over them at times. But they hold very strong memories  of growing up, and watching my mother stuff seeds into the ground along the side of our house. Every year. Without fail. Sweet peas would grow incredibly  and peek in the windows of the diningroom. And I would climb onto a stool and cut them off . Stuffing my face into their heady aroma. Not wanting summer to end. Not wanting that time to be gone. I would put as many as could fit into granadmothers cream pitcher. And stuff my face into them yet again. I still do that.....

  (1979)
                                                                                                        May 2014 First shoots. I decided to do the peas differently this year. I was on a garden tour about two years ago and saw a property that was growing them free standing in troughs of good soil. So, I dug out the top terrace, scatterd about 12-15 packets of sweet peas in the dug out, covered iwth good soil, compost, etc, made a mound , and watched to see what it would do.

(First sweet pea)

"Where lilac trees are gossiping, and whisper tell tales to the breeze, Sweetpeas are now clambering. Each hangs her pretty graceful head ....." ( Robert Kirkland Kernighan April 25 1854-Nov 3 1926)

(June 12th)
Over the mound of soil I got this neat idea to put large tomatoe cages, attach stakes to each side and string twine on the top sections. The peas got bigger.....

                         (June 18th) And bigger. Must be all the fertilizer pellets I dropped in ...Lathyrus Odoratus, native to Sicily and the Aegean Islands. The flowerof Remembrance, in Victorian times.

 
 End of June 2014. .First sweet peas. Pye LOVES sweet peas. She will nuzzle them and nuzzled them. Must be the scent. She goes positively goofy when they are brought into the house. IF left alone with a vase, she will pull them out, systematically.......She's been doing this for year. Sweet pea seeds can cause symptoms of scurvy if ingested on a frequent basis. The seeds contain beta-aminoproppionitrile, which studies have shown to be  useful in skin grafting.

 
                                                                       (JULY 5th) Sweet peas have been around since the 1700's, courtesy of a monk named Cupani.  But it was a Scotsman, Henry Eckford, who cultivated them into the wow factor associated with the Victorian era. The sweet Pea has a royal connection as well. The Spencer family gardener,( of Diana, Princess of Wales), Silas Cole, made the blooms even more large and wonderful. When you see the "Spencer Variety Mix" on your next packet of Sweet pea seeds, you are in the presence of history.

 

 
 I've discovered that the secret to getting them to grow, is to plant them everywhere, with abandon.Have no fear with gardening. Crannies, pots, porch, in troughs.....my theory is that to get a LOT of anything, you have to plant a LOT. Many seeds will not take. Seeds are affordable, easy to find, and you're better to stuff as many as you can  into the ground, and let nature to the rest.Make sure they are well watered, every day.

                              (JULY 8th)  Sweet Peas on Steroids......
                  
             (July 8th sweet peas) Then cut and cut and cut the flowers and the stalks, will produce more.

 And more, and more. And then Spencer, from next door, helps manage  bouquets.  Every day fresh. Or every other day. Then  I am reminded again, of growing up with sweet peas every summer. Of hot July and August nights with ice tea,  and the rich, almost dark scent of the flowers. And I bury my face, like the cat, into each bouquet, not wanting to let it go, trying to remember the scent, until the next time.....
                        
        "Here are sweet peas on tip toe for a flight,with wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white." ( Keats)
   The more you pick the morer you get, and the more I pick the happier Pye is to  snuffle snuffle........