Sweet Pea
Delicate Pleasures
Sweet pea
Apple of my eye
Don’t know when and I don’t know why
You’re the only reason I keep on coming home
Sweet pea
What’s all of this about?
Don’t get your way all you do is fuss and pout
You’re the only reason I keep on coming home
I’m like the Rock of Gibraltar
I always seem to falter
And the words just get in the way
Oh I know I’m gonna crumble
And I’m trying to stay humble
But I never think before I say
Sweet pea
Keeper of my soul
I know sometimes I’m out of control
You’re the only reason I keep on coming home
This darling girl was all the rage in the late Victorian era. Sweet pea is a climbing annual adorned with highly fragrant flowers on winged stems. Romantic, no? Her rich green leaflets grow in pairs with two leaflets and a terminal tendril. This curling tendril twines around whatever will support her, be they plants or structures. Where properly supported, she can grow to more than 8 feet tall. Her graceful flowers bloom in clusters. Each one features a large, upright, round petal, two narrow side petals like wings, and two lower petals forming a keel. In fact, the flowers look almost like butterflies, delicate things that could float away on a breeze. As lovely as she is, her wonderful aroma is equally as captivating. She has a way with the air, filling it with fragrance on the one hand, and drawing in the nitrogen from the air on the other. She is one of the few plants that can transform nitrogen from the atmosphere into nitrogen that plants can use as nourishment. Grace, beauty, and wisdom are all qualities of this sweet girl.
The Magic of Sweet Pea
Correspondences
Element: Water
Gender: Feminine
Sabbat: Beltane
Planet: Venus
Chakra: Heart
Spellwork
Love
Loyalty
Romance
Beauty
Prosper
Proverb
English: Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. (Jerome K. Jerome)
The Medicine of Sweet Pea
Ayurvedic
Not Applicable (TOXIC)
Herbology
Not Applicable (TOXIC)
TCM
Not Applicable (TOXIC)
Science of Sweet Pea
Botany
Botanical Name: Lathyrus odoratus
Family: Fabaceae (Pea Family)
Type of Plant: Annual
Habitat: Rich soil, Sun
Zone: 2-11
Bloom Time: May – July
Height: 3-8 feet
Spread: 1-2 feet
Propagation: Seed
Harvest: None
Part Used: None (TOXIC)
Constituents: TOXIC
Native Region: Crete, Italy, Sicily
Sustainability: Good
Leaf
Structure: Compound pinnate
Arrangement: Varies
Shape: Oval
Length: up to 2 inches
Margins: Entire
Surface: Smooth
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Flower
Inflorescence: Compound peduncle
Sexuality: Perfect
Stamen: 9 united, 1 free
Petals: 5 papilionaceous
Color: Pink, Purple, White, Blue
Size: 1-4 inch
Sacred Story
Some credit the English Romantic poet, John Keats, with bringing attention to the sweet pea. In his time, this flower was a much more modest affair. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that a Scottish horticulturist named Henry Eckford was able to breed the sweet pea to its current glory. Here are a few lines Keats wrote around 1819 regarding this gentle flower:
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.
