I have already reported on my conspicuous lack of success with tomatoes.\u00a0 For years I also tried to grow annual ornamental sweet peas\u2014Lathyrus odoratus–with only limited results.\u00a0 This year is different.\u00a0 I have thriving sweet peas for exactly one reason\u2014I ignored them completely from the time they were planted.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t order any sweet pea seeds this year because I have learned my lesson and didn\u2019t want to waste my time and energy yet again.\u00a0 However, I found one of last y ear\u2019s packages in the back of the refrigerator and planted them late.\u00a0 I set the pot out on the porch where it would catch rainwater and did nothing else.\u00a0 The germination rate was impressive.\u00a0 I stirred myself enough to place the pot in a shady location and then went on ignoring it.\u00a0 The growth rate increased.\u00a0 I put a small trellis into the pot to give the tendrils some support and put the pot back in the shade.\u00a0 Now the hot, sticky weather has descended and it is generally much hated by sweet peas.\u00a0 My neglected, contrarian sweet peas are going great guns in the shady spot and I should have some flowers soon.<\/p>\n
Now I have apparently cracked the sweet pea code and next spring I might even order some new sweet pea seeds.\u00a0 Then again, doing so might jinx my newfound good luck.\u00a0 Perhaps the best course of action is to order them and then put them in the refrigerator for a year.\u00a0 You never know\u2026<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I have been thinking about perennial sweet peas.\u00a0 If you have driven out in the country in mid summer, you have probably seen one species, everlasting pea, or Lathyrus latifolius, growing by the side of the road.\u00a0 The flowers are pale pink to rose pink and look just like those of annual sweet peas and other members of the pea and bean family.\u00a0 They scramble over the earth blooming beautifully over a fairly long season.\u00a0 My daughter used to pick lots of them from roadsides near our central New York summer cottage.\u00a0 They work in small flower arrangements, but unlike their annual cousins, they have no scent.\u00a0 This is a major drawback for me.\u00a0 The other major drawback is their vigorous habit, which can easily turn into invasiveness.\u00a0 As much as I love the looks of everlasting pea, I am not sure I can put up with its expansionist tendencies.<\/p>\n
A more sensible choice might be Lord Anson\u2019s pea, which sounds like something out of a Victorian novel.\u00a0 Lord Anson was George Anson, an eighteenth century aristocrat, sea captain and, eventually, Admiral of the Fleet, who managed an arduous but ultimately lucrative circumnavigation of the globe.\u00a0 His pea, which hails originally from South America, is a perennial with butterfly-like, fragrant blue flowers.\u00a0 Its current Latin name is Lathyrus nervosus, which sounds like a Victorian nervous complaint.\u00a0 An older Latin name is Lathyrus magellanicus, a tribute to the fact that Lord Anson collected the plant\u2019s seeds near the Strait of Magellan and managed to get enough viable seed back to England.\u00a0 The name seems a perfect tribute to the wandering natures of the first global circumnavigator, explorer Ferdinand Magellan, as well as Lord Anson.<\/p>\n
Lord Anson\u2019s pea can clamber up to a height of fifteen feet, making its way aloft by means of tendrils.\u00a0 The leaves are an appealing shade of blue green.\u00a0 While it has the vigor of most sweet peas\u2014the notable exceptions being any sweet peas planted on my property in the last ten years\u2014it does not seem to be invasive.\u00a0 I have not seen it wandering around the countryside in central New York or anywhere else, though I have seen it in a few gardens from time to time.\u00a0 It is hardy in my USDA Zone 7a garden and in fact will succeed from Zone 3 through Zone 10, which makes me wonder why more people don\u2019t grow it.<\/p>\n
I suspect it is more appreciated in Lord Anson\u2019s home country of England, as I have seen several write-ups in English garden publications and columns.\u00a0 In England, people grow it in partial shade, but in this part of the world, I would be more inclined to put it in a place where it receives morning sun and a bit of afternoon shade\u2014possibly an eastern exposure.<\/p>\n
Lord Anson fixed his sights on Spanish galleons and eventually captured one, loaded with pieces of eight.\u00a0 This enabled him to fix up his ancestral home.\u00a0 Lord Anson\u2019s pea fixes nitrogen in the soil, which is a wonderful thing for the earth around my family home.\u00a0 I feel a kinship with Lord Anson just thinking about it.\u00a0 The flowers attract butterflies.\u00a0 Perhaps some Red Admirals, which are plentiful around my garden, will find their way to the sweet peas named after a legendary seafarer.<\/p>\n
Lord Anson\u2019s pea is hard to find on this side of the Atlantic.\u00a0 I checked various databases, including the University of Minnesota\u2019s Plant Information Online, and it lists only one supplier, a California concern called Seedhunt.\u00a0 Its website is http:\/\/www.seedhunt.com<\/a>.\u00a0 They are sold out of Lord Anson\u2019s pea this year, but I will make a note to order some seed next winter.<\/p>\n When I think of all the futile effort I have put into growing sweet peas over the years, perhaps the effort needed to obtain Lord Anson\u2019s pea will be miniscule by comparison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have already reported on my conspicuous lack of success with tomatoes.\u00a0 For years I also tried to grow annual ornamental sweet peas\u2014Lathyrus odoratus–with only limited results.\u00a0 This year is different.\u00a0 I have thriving sweet peas for exactly one reason\u2014I ignored them completely from the time they were planted. I didn\u2019t order any sweet pea … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[596,595,594,160,159],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-everlasting-pea","tag-lathyrus-nervosus","tag-lord-ansons-pea","tag-ornamental-sweet-pea","tag-perennial-sweet-pea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}