Sweet Pea

flowers · fragrant · garden

Delightfully fragrant flowers. Sweet peas are famous for their amazing sweet smell that fills a garden. You can find them in nearly every color, from pink and purple to white and red.

Mediterranean home. Sweet peas originally grew wild on rocky islands in Sicily and the Aegean Sea. Sailors and traders brought them to Europe hundreds of years ago, and now gardeners grow them everywhere.

Part of the legume family. Sweet peas are cousins to beans and peas, which means they belong to the Fabaceae family. Like other legumes, they have seed pods, but people love them mostly for their beautiful, scented flowers instead of the seeds.

Climbers with tendrils. Sweet pea plants grow as climbing vines that grab onto fences and trellises using special curly tendrils. This helps them reach toward the sun in their natural rocky Mediterranean homes.

Victorian garden favorites. During the 1800s, sweet peas became wildly popular in England and were bred into hundreds of different varieties and colors. They remain beloved by gardeners who want sweet-smelling flowers for cutting and bringing indoors.