"Here are sweet peas, on tip toe for a flight: With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white, and taper fingers catching at all things, to bind them all about with tiny rings." (John Keats 1795-1821)
It is said that Keats gave the sweet pea its name and called it "sweet" and "pea" in the same breath.
Sweet peas were so popular in Edwardian England. Every dining room table, every wedding bouquet ( or thereabouts) sported sweet peas.
And now, the sweet peas from this summer are just on their way out, making pea pods every day with seeds for next year.
And cats that hunt, like Smokey, are finding long garter snakes in the base of the tendrils. Clever Smokey.
As queen of the annuals , the sweet pea flourishes best in the ground, and has a shorter life in troughs, but still they are amazing....I found an actual sweet pea poem,
"Under the Sweet Peas" , amid my ramblings. It's written by
Alfred Noyes ( 1880-1958)
Under the sweet peas I stood and drew deep breaths, they smelt sooooo good.
Then, with strange enchanted eyes , I saw them change to butterflies.
Higher than the skylark sings I saw their fluttering crimson wings
Leave their garden-trellis bare
And fly into the upper air.
(Bunny Peas)
Standing in an elfin trance through the clouds I saw them glance....
Then I stretched my hands up high
And touched them in the distant sky.
At once the coloured wing came back from wandering in the zodiac.
Under the sweet peas I stood
And drew deep breaths......
They smelt soooooooo good.
"Under the Sweet peas I stood" by Alfred Noyes......
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