"... you smileoh and then the spell was cast
and here we are in heaven
for you are mine, at last..."
Most people don't look at sweet peas as being Etta Jamesworthy. I normally wouldn't, either, but these flowers have been a long time coming for me so I am a little besotted.
I planted sweet peas a couple of times at the old house, and tried them here at the new house last year. I generally had no luck getting them to germinate and/or flower... and the one time I got flowers on them I discovered that not all sweet peas have scent. An understandable rookie mistake, but an extremely disappointing one nonetheless!
I winter sowed sweet pea seeds this year, but didn't get the plants in the ground as early as I should have. Frankly, they were planted so late that I figured my terrible luck with sweet peas was continuing this year and it would be entirely my own fault.
So these two blossoms, the first and maybe only flowers on the 5 'Cupani's Original' plants that germinated from seed for me, smell all the more sweet now because of my past issues. Seriously, the fragrance is absolutely heavenly on this antique variety--and the flowers are pretty too.
I think that next year I need more of them. :)
15 comments:
P.S. Mom: Yes, that vase is from grandma's, too! lol.
Sweet pea in September - we can't get them through July/August here!
I admire your tenacity~ I tried sweet peas once, they lived for such a short span, I never tried them again, figuring our weather was wrong for them. But I love them!
Throw in an intense case of powdery mildew and your sweet pea experience would be an exact replica of mine. A commenter on my site suggested I sow sweet pea seeds now for next year, so I may give them one more try that way. And like you, I was so disappointed that the few that did flower had no scent, even though the seed packets indicated that they were fragrant.
If you are having trouble germinating seeds, you can always soak them overnight before planting- it will help out a lot! Right now in California, we are supposed to be planting seeds for winter bloom...
Hi Kim,
I'm popping in to thank you for the nice comment you've left on my blog about my sweet peas. They do look like yours, don't you think? Mine are called Lathyrus odoratus "Matacuna" and they are smelling heavenly sweet. I sowed them at the end of May and thought that was quite late, because they only started flowering in August.
I love 'Cupani'. I grew them once and they reseeded by themselves for several years. They eventually died out but this is a timely reminder to pick up another seed packet and have them again next spring.
Don't forget that the more you pick the more you get.
Congratulations! I tried sweet peas once, with lousy results! Kudos for not giving up! I hope you continue to "reap what you sow"!
Kim, I read this and was rather jealous, thinking, 'Darn it, too bad we can't grow those scented sweetpeas in Austin'.
Now along comes MSS to say she's done it! How thrilling, another fragrant flower to try.
Annie
It makes one want to try, for sure!
Not that I would wish bad luck with a plant on a fellow gardener, but I am kind of glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has had trouble growing sweet peas! I didn't realize they were so tricky--I guess because they are an "heirloom" garden plant mentioned so much in older gardens, I had assumed that they were easy to grow.
Side note: As I mentioned to Carol on her blog, via research I discovered that 'Matacuna,' 'Cupani' and 'Cupani's Original' are all apparently names for the same plant--said to be the original sweet pea introduced by Father Cupani.
I'm singing along but requesting smellovision for the future please. :-D
Wouldn't smellovision be a great addition to garden blogs?!?!! I'd be in heaven. :)
W o n d e r f u l.
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