It's no secret that my all-time favorite flowers are sweet peas. There are literally hundreds (and maybe even thousands!) of different sweet pea varieties offering flowers in a huge spectrum of colors and shades. And while I couldn't pick a single favorite sweet pea variety, I have lately become fascinated with the color changing sweet peas or 'shifters'.

These 'shifters' are sweet peas that have been specifically bred to morph from one color to another as the flower petals age. Sweet peas have about 5 or more flowers to a stem and they open from the bottom up so the color changes up the stem and make a spectacular display bearing different colored blooms at the same time. All of these varieties were bred by Keith Hammett, a leading professional breeder of sweet peas and other ornamental plants.

Blue Shift Sweet Pea

This 'shifter' sweet pea transforms from pink/mauve to shades of brilliant blues and aquamarines as it ages – the flowers even change color in the vase after cutting, but will look just as lovely in place on a trellis or up a fence in your garden! An extraordinary hardy annual, they make a spectacular display bearing different colored blooms at the same time. We have a limited quantity of Blue Shift sweet pea seeds available.

Blue Vein Sweet Pea

I love this in my garden – it really is so unusual starting out a lovely shade of orange coral and then developing fascinating blue purple veining on the petals as it ages. The petals are so distinctive that they almost look as if they have been painted! This sweet pea has smaller flowers than other sweet peas you may have grown, but it still has the lovely sweet pea fragrance and will look lovely on a trellis in your garden where you can enjoy the color morphing en mass. Blue Vein sweet pea seeds are in short supply at the moment, but as of writing this blog post, we have some left.

Turquoise Lagoon Sweet Pea

This 'shifter' has to be my favorite! Even the fading blooms are magical on the ‘Turquoise Lagoon’ sweet pea. A real treasure! Such exquisite color and a lovely fragrance too. Turquoise Lagoon sweet pea seeds should be available in the autumn (at the time of writing this post).