The Tendrils of the Sweet Pea

The tendrils of sweet peas wrap around my heart and mind. Today, my first sweet peas bloomed. Here are some incidental reflections on sweet peas.

There are few pleasures like really burrowing one’s nose into sweet peas.
—Angela Thurkell

Sweet Peas

More sweet peas paintings here.

The painting is by the Belgian Painter and Botanist, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, (1759-1840) who was nicknamed the “Raphael of flowers”.

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.
—John Keats, in I Stood Tiptoe on A Hill, 1817

The scientific name of sweet pea flower is Lathyrus odoratus. Sweet peas are associated with the ideas of departures and goodbyes, as well as those of blissful pleasure. The flower can also be used to say thank you. The sweet pea is the official birth flower of April.

Alexander Hong in The Daily Californian

As cows need milking and sweet peas need picking, so writers must continually exercise their mental muscles by a daily stint. —Joan Aiken

The bi-color sweet peas in the thumbnail are available as ‘Point Loma Pops’ at San Diego Seed Company. Floret offers 65 varieties of sweet pea seeds, all of which are sold out at this time. How to Grow Sweet Peas on the Floret site offers excellent advice.

Many years ago these words might have approximated my life.

Mostly, I spend my time being a mother to my two children, working in my organic garden, raising masses of sweet peas, being passionately involved in conservation, recycling and solar energy. —Blythe Danner

Credits: Blogpost title and sweet pea painting from silkannthreades.