"Every two or three days though July and August the house has been refreshed with little pots and odd jars of sweet peas here and there on shelves, by stairs or bookcases, by doors. Their smell fades after a day or two but, of course, the more you cut the more they come, in this case the more you give away the more you get" ~ extract from 'Led By The Nose' by Jenny Joseph.
Well that was my flight of fancy back in February but it did not come to fruition this year. My sweet peas plants planted out in that dry April spell never flourished. So this year for the first times in years I am without one of my favourite flowers. However allotment friends have fared better than me and I have been invited to feel free to snip. This floriferous bunch is flooding my kitchen with their fabulous fragrance today. The fearful fencing installed by the council earlier this year, has provided the ideal framework for them to cling to and fare fantastically well.
Now with a fanfare here is a link to ABC Wednesday where you will find fun, fiction, fables and fantasy all featuring the letter F!
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteMmmmm Sweet Peas, I could not be without them! Ours have done ok, then the stems began to get really short because it was too dry so I've struggled to keep them happy and as a result the vases aren't as full as I'd like but I do have them at least.
It's a shame yours did not do well, hopefully next year you'll have some :)
I think they have to be the epitomy of August. I think the dry April really affected mine, but I am still managing to pick some, but still ahve enough in the garden to get wafts of scent as I pass by - divine!
ReplyDeletethe best laid plans of nicest gardeners...
ReplyDeleteROG, ABC Wednesday team
Sweet peas is sure a delight!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for generous friends. Awesome shot. I can almost smell them across the internets.
ReplyDelete“As fragrance abides in the flower
ReplyDeleteAs reflection is within the mirror,
So does your Lord abide within you,
Why search for him without?”
(Guru Nanak quotes (Indian Spiritual leader, 1469-1539))
Pheno, ABCW Team
Love 'em. What a beautiful photo!
ReplyDeleteI love sweet peas - glad the Dreaded Fence is proving useful for something! We failed to cut ours regularly enough so we now have more seed pods than flowers. But still enough to allow our toothless allotment neighbour to cut them to put on a grave most weeks, which feels good.
ReplyDeleteI'm also without sweetpeas this year, I just never got round to sowing the seeds and I'm now regretting it. It's nice to have good allotment neighbours who will allow you to snip a few for the house, you can't match that scent.
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous here in the middle of winter without the smells of summer. :)
ReplyDeleteI love their fragrance but have not had much success with them. Either they fade away, go to seed (due to my neglect) or get eaten. Really, it can't be that difficult - I'm not after perfection - but failure after failure has put me off!
ReplyDeleteThose sweet pea colors are absolutely stunning!! LOVE!
ReplyDeleteAnna, the f post foxed me as was stuck on something floriferous. Nothing like the sweet scent of Lathyrus and these hues are fabulous. Mine succumbed to virus again! The older varieties fared slightly better until this month. What is the secret of your fellow allotmenteers success?
ReplyDeleteAnother allotment benefit.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember you always grow 'matucana'.