Hello, Sweepea

[callmemadam]

I've achieved my ambition of a vase of sweet peas on the kitchen table every single day for (I hope) three months. I don't grow them properly so as the season goes on the stems will get shorter and shorter but the flowers will still smell as good. Those in the vase are just a basic Unwins mix. In the past I've added in the variety 'Matucana', which has small, dark flowers and is very strongly scented. It's an odd fact that while most serious growers are men, sweet peas are regarded as quintessentially feminine. One thinks of Angela Thirkell's Mrs Brandon, draped in soft chiffons, reclining on a sofa. On her very first appearance (in The Brandons) she 'had collected another great bunch of sweet peas and was holding them thoughtfully to her face,'

Flora Klickmann was very fond of flowers and of Maude Angell's paintings of them. Here's two examples, from The Girl's Own Annual for 1919.





The modern approach is more stylised. The picture below is by Paul Gell in Flowers from a Painter's Garden.



I can't run to Mrs Brandon's 'great bunches' but I'm happy with my daily vase.

Comments

[pinkhebe.livejournal.com]

I love sweet peas, and am desperately hoping the tangle in the garden actually produces some flowers. ~x~

Sweetpeas

[(Anonymous)]

We've never had much success with sweet peas and as we have such a tiny garden, with space at a premium, and not a really good position to put up a wigwam or whatever for them to climb up, we're not attempted to grow them for a few years, but seeing yours has made me think we ought to try again! They smell heavenly, don't they? Those and freesias are two of my fav garden flower scents (oh, and paeony).
Margaret Powling

Re: Sweetpeas

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I didn't have any last year and really missed them. I grow them in the veg patch up a willow effort which is not really tall enough for them but doesn't take up much space. Doing the job properly, with rows of canes and all that pulling them down and re-tying would be just too much for me!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Other people have complained that sweet peas are late flowering this year. I usually sow in autumn and sometimes have them flowering in May. This year I sowed in February, was quite late planting out and had the first flowers at the very end of June. Have faith!

[lethe1]

My favourite flowers!

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely!

I seem to recall Cecil Beaton describing women before the First World War as having deathly white powdered faces and wearing dresses the colour of sweet peas. (Not an exact quote, but the sweet pea thing stuck in my mind.)

sweetpeas

[(Anonymous)]

In Scotland I am about to pick my first flower! I don't think I'll achieve three months but might manage two.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thnak you!
Yes, rather Queen Mother-ish, don't you think? That floaty-mauvey thing.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

They seem universally popular! So easy, so prolific, such a range, such a scent.

Re: sweetpeas

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Your season is short but productive!