This my dear blog friends this is a showing off post.
Yes, I have a great wonderful achievement to report.
After several years of trial and error, failure, disappointment .....I have grown .....
a sweet pea.
Now I know its only one.
But its MY one.
Isn't it beautiful?
I couldn't tell you anything about the smell because its too wet to stand in the garden sniffing.
I was out there long enough to be reminded where most of my problems lie.
Forgive the blurry photo..I was shuddering while trying to take this.
The hosta leaves are lacy but the flowers look great, especially against the vibrant yellow of the alchemilla...before the rain battered them flat of course.
Sweet peas, I suppose, are my absolute favourite flowers of all, but for the last few years, after several attempts at growing them in large pots which resulted in vast amounts of greenery but no actual flowers, I seem to have, in a very modest way, succeeded. I had these in tubs in the garden at the side of the house, but the wind was inhibiting them, so one day I dumped the lot in the bare soil in the front sunnier garden and voila!
One flower, many buds. Lets hope.....
I may get a vase full.
In the meantime I satisfy my urge for the pale mauves, pinks and blues with this sort of thing.
I really, really, love these colours.
This one is just as nice but unfortunately pink velvet doesn't photograph so well.
I met two fellow bloggers on Thursday and we had a great long chat and a bit of cake, at Salts Mill, Saltaire, near Bradford.
What a lovely day we had.
Their company made up for a false start in my stupid car, when I had to turn back after 15 miles and swap to my husbands car. His has done 178,000 miles and has a big box of broken glass in it on its way to the tip, but it drives like the wind.
Mind drives as if its GOT wind.
30 comments:
congratulations you deserve an ''I grew a sweet pea'' sticker!! I am still mourning the loss of quiff head, tragic, it won't be the same without him....
Well done on the sweet pea! An unbelievable amount of snails here too........... pah! Your comment re your car made me laugh. :O)
Such a beautiful sweet pea! We had very few on our plant this year - think maybe it's being crowded out with all the other 'stuff' around it. And snails are here by the gazillion - never seen so many! btw - thanks for the snicker about your car!
LOL....You are **too** funny....I can just here the put put put now. =-)
As for sweatpeas....wish I could send you some...I rip them out every year hoping to avoid them taking over the deck and grabbing me by the ankles as I sit there... One man's ceiling is another man's floor...so they say. =-)
Congratulations on your one sweet pea flower. It reminds me of our tomato garden, full of plants with one measly tomato!
Well you lone sweet pea is beautiful. and the snails, ugh. But I think I would rather have your snails than our slugs. unnngaaah slugs. most disgusting creatures.
waaahh, I planted mine twice and they didn't come up. So I will have to enjoy yours, hurry up and grow more flowers;-) and add the scent app to your blog.heheh.
I loooove those pinky/purply/blue velvet creations. Yum
We had such a lovely time didnt we?...I went into the garden the other day and there are slugs and snails everywhere and masacred plants..(not sure about the spelling - but I teach people how to say words not spell them...) looking forward to our next meet in Haworth - the cake there is excellent...
I dont have a sweet pea but an ordinary garden pea which is the most gorgeous pink colour! This is mid winter here, hope the snails dont get mine.
Love the bit about your car having wind!
That's interesting since this year we too tried growing sweet peas in a tub and have a lot of greenery and only 2 flowers - memo to self don't grow them in a tub next year! Love your craft work so clever.
Jane
Big congratulations on the sweet pea!
I know the feeling about sweet peas. And you give me hope, maybe I'll have some someday :-)
But I gave up for hostas, too many snails...
Sweet peas, stunning colours and a dyspeptic car. What could be better?
I have never seen such a beautiful sweet pea Jackie - have a gold star! Snails are the bane of my life too. Love the brooches - the colours are gorgeous. Glad you had such a good day out and hope your car will soon feel better.
Jackie - well done on the beautiful sweet pea - you are very lucky - sweet peas don't usually flower if grown in pots - they hate the restriction - like to spread roots (only shallow but wide distance)SO Well done. Might I also suggest that in the spring when your hosta(s) are at the pre-leaf stage you cover as much of the soil with very finely broken egg shell (if poss in a layer of about 1/2 inch- but very finely crushed) I do this every year and the snails and slugs hate it so the hosta has no holes. It can look quite attractive too! Love the latest velvet creations - the colours are just devine!
Well done with the sweet pea. Mine only have leaves so I live in hope. Love the colours of these pieces.
Congratulations on the Sweet Pea! I soooooo love the colours in the leaf brooch - it's very pretty! Thankyou for commenting on the problem I had with the 1008 a while back - I've been digging around and it appears to be quite common despite Bernina and a couple of dealers still saying it is unheard of. I'm not bothering to take it up with them just wanted to bring it to their attention and see what they said really - they all seem to suggest that it is prolonged and heavy use of metallic thread. Well, probably about a dozen 200m spools over 9 or so years I wouldn't call unreasonable use but, like you, I can get over it anyway. Thanks again.
Congrats on the sweet pea front!!! I too have had the same problems till this year when I have finally succeeded! They like full sun! Love your work as usual - the colours you put together are gorgeous. I absolutely love Salts Mill, my daughter is just starting her GCSE Art and she has a thing for David Hockney so I feel a trip coming on - also my friend has just moved over there so I have two excuses to go!!! Happy Days xxx Rachel xxx
Congratulations on your sweet pea! That is success indeed! Lucy x
That's a very beautiful sweet pea!! I love the colours of your latest pieces of work too!
your sweet pea is beautiful. I have tried to grow them but not much luck. I thought maybe it was the heat here in Arizona. I thought they were easy but not so it seems for everyone. Although someone has them over growning in their yard.
And it's a white sweet pea! It's beautiful!
When we first moved in to this house 22 yrs ago there was nothing in the back yard. I planted sweet peas around the fence on three sides and they all grew tall. We had a fence of fragrent sweet peas that was eye appealingly spectacular. They never grew again?????
Bravo for your one. I can smell it from memory! ;-)
I do love all your fabric art pieces!
Wonderful and serendipitous...this is our summer of the sweetpea too! It's the first year ours have bloomed and we think it's because we grew them from seed on the porch so they escaped all the rain and cold nights we had all spring and early summer!
a lovely sweetpea. I don't think we have as many as last year.
We have lacey hostas too.
Glad you enjoyed your visit to Saltaire.
Congratulations! With me, of course, it's the rabbits eating the poor sweet peas while they're still little vine-lings. We seem to be enjoying opposite trials this year - it's been so hot and humid - feels like temps in the 100s every day! Soldier on.
Well done on the sweetpea, I'm sure lots more will come up.
Your little works of art are exquisite.
here in the US countyside, sweet peas grow along the roads in ditches. They seem to like wet rockey soil. Maybe treat them like weeds is the answer, no special treatment.
We have a lot of pink sweet peas in my area.
jill
I too have had problems with my sweet peas this year - usually I get loads - this year only a few more than you! - are you going to FOQ?
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