SWEET PEAS ARE MADE OF THIS

Book tip for everyone who likes vetches

A World of Sweet Peas is a wonderful book for gardeners, flower lovers, Anglophiles, aesthetes…

Sweet Peas: the name says it all

People in England and the USA love sweet peas. In Germany, they are rather rare. Is that because of the name? The English name says it all: fans of sweet peas love the fragrance that even a few vetches can develop in a vase. The perfect accompaniment to a stylish high tea or the first gin & tonic on a summer weekend.

The German name Wicken, on the other hand, sounds rather brittle.

Sweet peas originate from Sicily and some wild sweet pea fields can be found there in April and May around Palermo and in some other parts of southern Italy. All the more reason to travel to Sicily again and enjoy the beguiling scent of sweet peas in the countryside after enjoying art and culture in Palermo.

After reading the book at the latest, you’ll be a vetch fan

The Swedish author Cecilia Wingård and the Englishman Philip Johnson have written the book A World Of Sweet Peas, which we would like to recommend to you, because both the content and the excellent photographs make it a wonderful gift for people who enjoy flowers and would like to learn more about the delicate vetches.

The background of the two authors: Cecilia Wingård has been growing sweet peas in Sweden for years and even founded a Sweet Pea Festival there to talk shop with like-minded people about this beautiful flower species.

Philip Johnson was introduced to the delicate vetches by his grandmother at the age of eight, planted his first vetches the following year and confidently took part in a Sweet Pea Competition shortly afterwards. One of the many endearing events in the UK where passionate gardeners are awarded a plaque for outstanding results from their garden.

A few years ago, Philip Johnson bought Seedlynx, a well-known traditional wholesaler of sweet pea seeds. His company now trades under the name English Sweet Peas and supplies seeds online and also offers seedlings locally. Unfortunately, thanks to Brexit, no longer to Europe. However, all our readers of the English-language version of GloriousMe in England, Scotland, the USA and Canada can order beauty and fragrance for their gardens there.

It is thanks to their knowledge that this book is not only a beautiful coffee table book, but also contains a comprehensive history of the cultivation of sweet peas, their varieties, their fragrance nuances and practical tips on planting.

Stability

As the name suggests, vetches are a flat pea plant. Vetches need a climbing aid. For GloriousMe, it was the need to erect a fence that tipped the scales in favor of implementing the long-held wish for sweet peas in the garden. A good example of how a negative development can ultimately lead to a beautiful result. We purchased the seeds for this from the Düsseldorf online store The Golden Rabbit and observe almost daily how well the sweet peas are developing.

If we had had the book A World of Sweet Peas in our hands when we were choosing the seeds, we would have been able to make our selection from the vast world of small, delicate plants even more consciously.

The book also presents plants that can be perfectly combined in a bouquet in sweet peas. This information is also excellently presented, so that we will soon be ordering some of these plants, which were previously unknown to us, so that we can enjoy the sweet peas not only in their purist form but also in beautiful bouquets.

Follow the Scent

Sweet peas, best cut early in the morning, exude a wonderful fragrance. We find the combination of delicate flowers, interesting colors and fragrance irresistible. Sweet peas do not last very long in the vase. This is one reason why sweet peas are rarely found in flower stores at home. A good reason to plant them in your own garden or on the balcony.

The book makes you want to try it yourself. It classifies the vetches according to their scent: 45 wonderful vetch varieties, which according to the experts have a distinctive scent, are presented with pictures and scent descriptions.

When ordering seeds for next year, we will certainly consult this little guide to order the varieties that smell strongly of lemon. We don’t have the time to grow our own vetch, but the book also contains useful tips on this.

From Sicily via London and Amsterdam to the New World

The Italian monk and passionate botanist Francesco Capani was the first to specify these delicate flowers. He founded a botanical garden near Palermo. Unfortunately, his botanical garden no longer exists, but traces of his work can still be found today in the Palermo Botanical Garden, one of our tips for this wonderful city.

Botanical Garden, Palermo © GloriousMe

Capani sent seeds of the Sicilian sweet peas to the botanist Robert Uvedale near London and to Caspar Commelin in Amsterdam.

It is thanks to the mercantile spirit of the English and Dutch that the cultivation of sweet peas was such a great success. The English still excel in the breeding of sweet pea varieties today. The Americans recognized the business potential and entered the mail order business for sweet pea seeds on a large scale.

Connected with the English royal family

There are two basic classes of sweet peas: The so-called Grandifloras and the Spencers.

The Grandiflora varieties are generally smaller, have shorter stems but a more intense fragrance compared to the Spencer varieties. The latter can reach a height of up to three meters. Event planners who work with sweet peas on a larger scale as floral decorations for ambitious events prefer the Spencer varieties, where you can enjoy not only the scent of the sweet peas but also the bouquet of the champagne at the party.

BERGAMOT – GOLD FROM CALABRIA

We owe the Grandiflora varieties mainly to Henry Eckford (1823 – 1905), who was born near Edinburgh and lost his father at a very young age. After leaving school, he began an apprenticeship as a gardener in Inverness. The smart young gardener became acquainted with many aristocratic country estates in the course of his career. At each one, he tried to learn everything there was to know about each garden within a year before moving on.

As a head gardener in England, he was financially secure enough to start a family at the age of 30. At the age of 65, he finally set up his own breeding business and started sending out seeds. He is regarded as the father of today’s Grandiflora varieties.

If the name Spencer reminds you of the maiden name of the first wife of the current King Charles III of England, you are on the right historical track. The Head Gardener at Althorp Park, the ancestral home of the Spencer family, from which the late Lady Di originated, eventually developed the Spencer varieties through cross-breeding.

Sweet peas are loved everywhere

Whether in a romantic cottage garden in Bavaria or in an aristocratic country estate in England, Japan or parts of Australia, sweet peas have found their fans everywhere.

The book A World of Sweet Peas will certainly increase the following of these elegant flowers. We can recommend it with great conviction as a gift for friends. The photographs in it are excellent, the texts are helpful and care has clearly been taken with all the details. For example, for each arrangement you can also read who made the interesting vases in which they were arranged.

You can order the book from The Golden Rabbit, our favorite online garden store in Düsseldorf.

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