Sweet Peas

Morning my lovelies, it's yet another grey drizzly day here in North Yorkshire I'm sad to say, very un-Julyish still. But no matter, life goes on and I am happy enough pottering around dodging the showers.

Because of the weather we haven't been able to use our little outdoor space very much yet this summer, but I like to go outside most days to stroll round my little patch and check on my flowers. Usually when I'm cooking I open the back door and pop out in between chopping and stirring and baking (which is why I'm wearing my apron in above photo). I would say my flowers are more surviving than thriving but nevertheless they are growing and managing to do delightful, colourful flowery things and I love to go and say hello to them.

I confess I didn't grow my sweet peas from seed and haven't a clue what sort of variety they are. They were an impulse buy from the co-op one day when I popped in for a loaf of bread. There they were, lots of plantlets in in a dinky little tray for £1.99 and I was powerless to resist the lure of them, the promise of colour and scent to come. In my usual haphazard fashion though I didn't treat them very well and they ended up a  bit root-bound in their dinky little plastic tray before I finally planted them out into a nice big blue-glazed pot.

So they look a little straggly don't they? And they haven't exactly rocketed up the swirly sticks as I had anticipated. But I have hopes for them continuing to climb as the summer moves on so that eventually they might greet me at face height rather than knee height. But still, as short as they are, they are delightful. The colours are fabulous, they're that wonderful mix of pastel and bright that I love. And the scent is ecsquiste. Really, it makes me go weak at the knees.

I know that you are supposed to pick sweet peas aren't you, the more you pick the more they grow, right? But it was still difficult, I felt such a meany cutting them! There was only a small handful to be had, and the stems were so short that they wouldn't really go into a jug or vase. So I arranged them in a little mug with some alchemila (from Lovely C's garden) and set them on the table.

The scent from this little posy was powerful enough to fill the whole room.. Some of us appreciated it more than others. I won't tell you what J says about the "stink" because it isn't very nice. However,  me and Little Lady think it's delightful. Its the scent of summer.

Comments

[tess]

Sweet pea or beautiful plant.
I have growth some from seed and there are now growing tall just waiting for the flower and hopefully some lovely sunny weather.

[Shauna Chapman]

Remember to PICK your sweatpeas as the more you pick, the more flowers will come! Promise!

[Louise]

I love the smell of sweet peas around the house, and they look so pretty. I have a bunch of sea holly which I cut from the garden, have you smelt them, not very nice! But they look very effective. x

[Steph]

Sweet peas are a joy aren't they. My little boy planted our very first ones in a huge half barrel and I must say they're doing pretty well which is a bit of surpirse as I did the same as you and left them 'til they looked a bit sorry for themselves in the tray! We did give them a fed them a liquid feed a couple of times and now they're huge.

I feel torn in two aswell about cutting them though, its a struggle to decide to have them in the house or have a big but not very colourful bush outside!

I do love visiting your very colourful blog, such a cheer on a yet another grim summer's day. Thank you!
Stephx

[Funkymonkey]

Luckily my Father-in-law grows prize winning sweet peas so I always have a plentiful supply throughout the summer. Don't they smell gorgeous?

[Gill]

my dad brought me a bunch today from his garden, the smell in our family room is great..

Gill

[driftwood]

ok so how come I live in cold grey wet north yorkshire too, and my sweet peas are no where near flowering - not fair. xx

[claire]

Lovely sweet peas- the nearset i have is my two blue eyed peas in a pod over here in Wales!! They're 7 and 4 and shooting up every day, thirsty and hungry, blossoming all the time and so much fun and joy! They loved your lemon cake I made today yum yum in our tums.:D Have a great lemon muffin recipe like that you'd like. Been making felt beads today your colourful site has inspired me to make some to match your crochet flowers. I'm a Northener living in Wales, it rains, but boy does that make your garden grow!!! here's to attics, wee ones, flowers and blogging cheers ( sips tea and munches yummy lemon cake) love clairexx

[Mia]

How lucky you are to be able to pick lovely posies of sweet peas from your back garden. They look so pretty and am sure the scent is heavenly (no matter what your beloved says). I will still have to wait quite a while before I can start picking sweet peas from my cutting garden. I did sow a few seeds in May, but they will probably not flower before August. Maybe next year I too should buy small seedlings.

I have not been around in blogland for quite a while but have now enjoyed all your lovely entries since my last visit. Do keep up the good work.

[Anna]

Ooh, I can almost smell them from here-they don't look straggly to me! But then my poor attempt at sewing sweetpeas from seed ended in one pitiful flower. Pffft.
Lovely mug/jug type thing!x

[Catherine]

The closeup of the sweetpeas should be on a greeting card. Lovely Pic.

[Lynn]

I'm living vicariously through you -- I have sweet pea plants, but still no blooms. I need to acknowledge that my climate is too hot, and move on! But I'd love to experience that famous scent...Also, love the combo with the Lady's Mantle!!

[annie]

I love sweetpeas for their wonderful colours and their shape BUT I can never seem to grow them - yours are lovely!
ax

[Diana]

aah! sweet peas, my favourite...and they look good in the Andrew Lloyd mug!

[simone]

Your sweetpeas are lovely and cheery. I love growing things but maintainance isn't usually one of my strengths. This year however I am paying a lot of attention to feeding, watering and deadheading my plants and am being rewarded with lots of lovely blooms. I have never had much success with sweetpeas but I think I might keep a look out for some as I do love their scent.