Smell of fresh sweet peas in the house just cannot be replicated

Peter Dowdall on two scents which offer such a sweet aroma... who wouldn’t want summer in a vase.

Every year, no matter how long the winter and how much time I have to get ready for the season ahead, there’s always at least one (and normally several) jobs that I don’t get around to in time.

This year it was my sweet pea seeds. I like to start them off in September in small pots on my kitchen windowsill.

Starting them at that time means they will germinate quite quickly because it is still warm but the weather soon cools and they won’t grow out of hand during the winter.

It means that I will have good strong plants early in the following year that will have a good head start and give me better results than plants grown from seed started in the spring.

In fact I most likely mentioned this as a tip in this column last September. It’s good advice, but its vital then that you follow the proverb Do as I say and Not as I Do.

Autumn came and went last year and not one sweet pea seed was sown in the Dowdall household.

I kept saying it to myself whenever I thought of it that I must get them sown, but even by March they were still in the packet.

Before I knew it April was upon us and at that stage I sowed them directly outside and have spent the last eight weeks encouraging my young plants up the fence, willing them upwards.

I even hung some garden twine down in front of their noses to encourage them to send out a curling tendril to catch on and get going.

They did catch on and are now well on their way up, they will get there and of course they will flower, but they will be quite late and it’s a pity, as they are without question an essential part of summer.

The smell of a vase of fresh sweet peas in the house cannot be replicated. It is just summer in a vase.

If you were more organised than me and did get your seedlings going before Christmas then your babies will have begun flowering during this month. However, If like me you were less than prepared, then they still have a bit to go.

Regardless of when you started them — when they begin to flower, keep cutting the flowers to bring inside, as the more you do this the more flowers will be produced. Sweet Pea are one of the most intensively hybridised plants because they are so popular and seed companies are always trying to develop new colours and new habits.

But when any plant is this intensively bred, and here roses and carnations jump to mind, they often lose that most important of attributes, scent.

Now to me, a beautiful looking sweet pea with no scent is a huge disappointment, like chips without salt and vinegar — it looks right but doesn’t satisfy all the senses.

Scent is such an important feature in the garden — summer scents in particular, as many of our more scented plants tend to be winter and early spring flowering such as Chimonanthis, the many Daphnes, Sarcoccoca and Hammamelis to name but a few.

There aren’t as many during the summer, in fact after Roses, Lavender, Choisya and Philadelphus, I struggle to think of any scented summer flowering shrubs.

And it is during this season that we are out in the garden and using it as outdoor living space, and this is when we want to enjoy sweet garden aromas. So I would stress that if you are growing your own sweet pea from seed, then do make sure that you are growing a strongly scented strain. (Stocks are great and night-scented stock is a superb annual for perfuming the evening air.)

I mentioned carnations as one of those groups that may have had scent bred out of them and this is true to a degree, but let me introduce you to a variety which I only discovered this summer and it stopped me in my tracks.

Bred by Whetman Pinks in the UK and available since 2011 ‘Memories’ is an improved version of ‘Mrs Sinkins’ which dates back to 1863 and what bowled me over is the magical scent it provides.

Aptly named too — as it is our sense of smell which is most closely associated to our memory.

Stick your nose into the beautiful full white flowers which are produced on top of rigid stems about 25cm high, breathe in deeply and you will be taken on a journey right back to your childhood as your senses are overcome with an all-encompassing scent of sweet cloves, if words can describe an olfractory sensation.

Grown by Young Nurseries in Kilfinane in Limerick they should be available in most garden centres.

This plant is an example of me acting upon my own advice and I have already introduced one into my own garden, as I wouldn’t risk them being sold out before I got organised.

This time I did what I said, only time will tell if this September sees pea seeds on my kitchen window sill, but in the meantime I will enjoy the ‘Memories’ and await my sweet pea flowers.