Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Sweet Pea in Bloom


The Sweet Pea or Lathyrus odoratus is a highly scented annual of the Leguminosae family. I like sweep pea in the garden but I've not always been successful at growing them. They need lots of attention and care. This year I sowed some seed and planted them out in a number of tubs. They have done fairly well and are now flowering well. As you pass between these two down the garden there's a beautiful scent.

Sweet Pea poetry? John Keats seems to be credited with popularizing the name “sweet pea. He wrote in A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever

Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimmed and white,
Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees

Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,

I must be near the middle of my story.

and again in I Stood Tip-Toe Upon a Little Hill

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.

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