Sweet pea season is coming to an end here and I am busily harvesting seed that will be ready for sale in the autumn.  This year I have grown over 50 varieties of sweet peas.  Many of them I have grown before and I feel as though I am greeting old friends as their blooms emerge along with their sweet fragrance. 

However, growing new sweet peas is always thrilling.  It amazes me each year that there is such a huge range of colors available, and we have sweet pea breeders such as Keith Hammett and Roger Parsons to thank for that.  New varieties I grew this year that stood out were 'Almost Black' and 'Strawberry Fields'.  The latter was an early bloomer flowering around the same time as the early peonies and happily, almost the same color as 'Etched Salmon', a favorite peony for cutting.  The 'Almost Black' sweet pea was stunning as a cut flower mixed with pale pink roses.

Sweet Pea and Rose Flower Arrangement

The smaller Almost Black Sweet Pea looked stunning mixed with pale pink roses.

 

Strawberry Fields and Etched Salmon Peony

This peony was blooming at the same time as the Strawberry Fields sweet peas and was almost exactly the same shades of pink.

Highly Scented

This year for the first time I grew the 'High Scent' sweet pea and as it's name suggests, it is one of the most fragrant sweet peas. All annual sweet peas are scented, but some more so than others which this one definitely was - grow it and you won't be disappointed. New selection of sweet pea seeds available September 2019 in my online shop where I will also be offering international shipping. Sign up for my newsletter (if you haven't already to get notified when the new selection is available).