We were so late getting the garden up and running last year, end of May before any seeds went in, that by the time I realised I wanted sweet peas I had to cheat and buy two pots of ready-grown Spencer Mixed from the market and hope for the best. In fact each pot yielded about forty plants once I had untangled them and potted them on.
And they were a huge success. We were picking flowers almost into November, vase after vase, and the minute you though you'd stripped the plants bare there would be another batch ready and waiting.
Having never grown them before ( the Tinker has of course so his had double the number of flowers because he talked to them and wired them up properly and put them in the sunniest place) this all felt like a huge achievement and I was already casting thoughts ahead to this year.
We hunted around for some special varieties at the garden centre and I planted them back in September so that we can be ahead of the game this year, and they seem to be surviving in their root trainer pots (old toilet rolls) out on the nursery bed...
...but then I found Easton Walled Gardens near Grantham in Lincolnshire
When they tweeted that it was time to buy sweet pea seeds, and to sow them under cover now, I thought I'd have a little look...it works doesn't it, I hate this lack of control over subliminal advertising, except I was quite pleased when I arrived there (virtually.)
One of the things the Tinker says about so many plants nowadays is that they don't smell like they used to, and I think he's right. I've given up on early hyacinths after some recent disasters that had us putting them out in the garden because we couldn't stand the smell, and carnations seem to have had that gorgeous scent bred right out of them, and though our sweet peas were lovely I'm sure there are better. Looking at the flower's history I see it was discovered in 1699 in the pastures of Sicily by an Italian monk. He sent the seeds to England where they were first grown by a Dr Uvedale who must have been delighted with the results.
I was ripe for capitulating when Easton Walled Gardens tempted me in with their grandiflora antique varieties of Lathyrus odoratus here's what they say...
This range of sweet peas is very special. It includes sweet peas that were being grown in Edwardian gardens before the First World War. The flowers and plants are slightly smaller than the modern varieties but they are worth growing because the range of colours is glorious and the scent is magnificent! Particularly suitable for growing in the garden supported by thin branches or twigs or in pots and for putting in cutflower arrangements to scent a whole room...
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