I have a love for sweet peas. Actually, I'm fairly addicted to sweet peas. I can't resist them. I must buy them nearly every week at the flower market. They are so tempting and I love all the color varieties. I especially adore lavender, but pale pink, hot pink, coral, deep purple, and white have all made it into my shopping basket.
Then there are the sweet peas called Misty that have a sort of tie-dye look because they are picked before the color fully developed, I'm told. Those sweet peas are truly spectacular. Sweet peas look really delicate and have a soft, ruffled shape. Sweet peas are, well, sweet – yet they are very strong, have amazing vase life, and smell lovely.
While I love to mass one color in a vase of 30-50 stems, I am just as happy with a single stem in an apothecary jar!
In The Secret Language Of Flowers by Samantha Gray I learned that Sweet Peas originated in Italy and were popular in the Victorian era, but became even more widely used in the Edwardian era. Gray writes:
"Sweet peas became the floral emblem of the Edwardian period. They featured in displays at nearly every wedding and dinner party and their dried petals were added to the bowls of pot pourri placed around peoples' homes. In Victorian Times it became the custom to give a bunch of sweet peas after an enjoyable stay with friends."
A lovely flower and a joy to behold!
"Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimm'd and white,
Hide in deep herbage;and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas"
John Keats, (1795-1821) "Endymion"
