Fetching. Charming. Undeniably adorable.

What is it about sweet peas, that so many warm and fuzzy adjectives immediately come to mind?

The scent? The ruffles? The delicate color combinations?

Whatever the appeal, it/s certainly timeless.

Indeed, the history of sweet peas dates back to the Moors, who cultivated the Sicilian wildflower (Lathyrus odoratus) in the mid-1400s.

In 1699, a Franciscan monk named Father Frances Cupani shared seeds with gardening friends in England and Holland. Cupani/s sweet peas bore small, pungent, purple and burgundy flowers on short stems. Remarkably, they/ve withstood the test of time 7 I grew my first Cupani/s Originals five years ago, and they/ve reseeded every winter since.

But the real frenzy hit in the late 1800s, when an Englishman, Henry Eckford, got hold of the plants and started breeding. By 1900, some 300 varieties of sweet peas were available, with more than 100 developed by Eckford. All of the sweet peas bore pretty flowers. But their scent was the main attraction.

That changed the following year, when Silas Cole discovered a mutation of a grandiflora sweet pea called Prima Donna in the British garden where he worked. This new sweet pea had ruffled edges and large, rose-pink flowers measuring 2 inches across. The garden was at Althorp, home of Earl and Countess Spencer, Princess Diana/s grandparents.

Named for the Earl, the Spencer sweet pea bore little scent. But because of its size and novel, ruffly petals, it quickly became the parent of most modern-day efforts to produce larger, more prolific blooms with frilly petals on longer stems.

Sweet pea mania hit the states as well, with the Central Coast sharing the fame.

It began in the late 1800s when a Lutheran minister, the Reverend Lewis C. Routzahn, hybridized sweet peas in Arroyo Grande on land owned by his father-in-law, T.H. McClure.

Then in 1907, a Scotsman, John Smith, convinced a Lompoc bean farmer, Robert D. Rennie, to grow sweet peas. The experiment was such a success that W. Atlee Burpee created Burpee Floradale Farm in the Lompoc Valley two years later, with sweet pea seeds 7 including some of the varieties developed by Routzahn 7 as a leading crop.

Unfortunately, the shift in breeding bigger and showier flowers came at the expense of fragrance. The smaller, more pungent varieties nearly faded away.

But then in the 1980s, yet another Englishman, Peter Grayson, sought to resurrect the more strongly scented, older generations. Grayson located more than 50 heirloom sweet peas throughout the world, and encouraged other preservationists to follow his lead.

That, coupled with a growing interest in antique and fragrant plants in general, has prompted specialty nurseries to begin offering the varieties that gardeners tended so many years ago. Those include my Cupani/s Originals. They are often labeled as antique, heirloom or heritage sweet peas.

Get Growing

Plant flowering sweet peas from now through December, and by early next spring, the delicate blooms will send their sweet scent wafting through the garden. Indoors, their fresh fragrance and stiff, long stems are perfect for arrangements.

Actually, you can sow annual sweet peas just about any time on the Central Coast. But the vining plants perform best during cool, moist weather. Traditional varieties send up long runners with curly, grasping tendrils. There are ankle-high, bushy types as well. Years of breeding have resulted in a wide range of colors, including pastel pinks, purples and whites, and bright reds, magentas, yellows and blues.

Cultivation is the same, whether you grow vines or bushes, antiques or moderns.

The plants grow best in rich, moist soil, and in full sun. They do equally well in pots, planter boxes or the ground.

If your soil is heavy clay, dig a foot-wide and foot-deep trench. Add rich, organic material to improve the drainage. Or form a long, raised mound and work in loose, fertile amendment.

If your soil tends to sand, still work in organic material to retain moisture and supply nutrients during the growing season.

Most sweet peas send out flexible vines that grow 6 to 9 feet and clamor for support.

The flowers are charming while twining through a lattice or chain link fence. But the interlocking tendrils are miserable to unravel after the vines decline.

Setting up a temporary system may prove less frustrating.

You can create a trellis by pounding two 6-foot posts into the ground and tying twine between the posts at 6-inch intervals.

Stretching bird netting between the posts works, too. But again, it/s difficult to disentangle the vines at the end of the season. Rolling up the mess and tossing it is not very ecologically satisfying, either. I/ve tried both methods, and settled on using a widely spaced wooden trellis instead. It/s a lot easier to clean up.

You might also grow your sweet peas in a large patio pots, then let the vines clamber up a patio post.

Or grow the bushy types that reach only a foot or two tall, and stand unassisted.

After you have prepared the soil and set up supports, soak the seeds in warm water for several hours or overnight. Some experts recommend treating the seeds with a fungicide after soaking.

Also, unlike some seeds, sweet peas are finicky if they/re not fresh. Check the year on the packet.

In the garden, make a furrow about an inch deep with your hand or a trowel. Drop in the seeds every few inches, then cover them with an inch of soil.

Keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout. Depending on the soil temperature, that may take one to three weeks. Once the seedlings have produced several sets of leaves, thin them to 6 inches apart.

Water your sweet peas regularly if winter rains don/t cooperate. Within a couple of months, masses of fragrant, delicate, tissue-papery flowers should begin to appear. Cut the beguiling flowers often for bouquets 7 and deadhead the rest 7 to encourage even more prolific blooming.

SEEDS OF WISDOM: Flowering sweet peas are not edible. In fact, the seeds are poisonous to animals and humans.

SEED SOURCES:

Enchanting Sweet Pea Seeds

244 Florence Ave.

Sebastopol, CA 95472

(800) 371-0233

www.enchantingsweetpeas.com

Fragrant Garden Nursery

P.O. Box 4246

Brookings, OR 97415

(541) 412-8840

www.fragrantgarden.com

Renee/s Garden

No catalog: retail or website only

(888) 880-7228

www.reneesgarden.com

Select Seeds - Antique Flowers

180 Stickney Hill Road

Union, CT 06076

(860) 684-9310

www.selectseeds.com

Swallowtail Garden Seeds

122 Calistoga Rd., #178

Santa Rosa, CA 95409

(800) 723-1771

www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com

* Joan S. Bolton is a local free-lance writer and garden designer. Her In the Garden column appears biweekly. She can be contacted through her Web site: www.santabarbaragardens.com.