Lathyrus odoratus Apricot Sprite - Sweet Pea Seeds

Apricot Sprite is a new annual sweet pea variety that stands out from the crowd thanks to the unusual colour of its flowers, a rather bright pink subtly tinged with apricot. All summer, delicately scented clusters of flowers appear, perfect for bouquets. Apricot Sprite looks great alongside other sweet pea varieties or different coloured flowers. This small vine can be used everywhere, be it climbing up an old garden fence, romantically cascading from hanging baskets or roaming free as a ground cover. It's easily grown from seed and will do well providing it has enough sunshine and good, moist soil in which to grow.

Lathyrus odoratus is an annual herbaceous plant of the Fabaceae family originating from south-eastern Italy and Sicily. Apricot Sprite is a climbing variety: it can reach 1.80 m to 2 m in height and 30 cm in width in the space of a few months. Its quadrangular winged stems have stipules at their base, bear pairs of light-green leaflets and end in a terminal tendril. Flowering takes place from June to August. The papilionaceous flowers are quite large, grouped in axillary clusters of up to 6 orangey-pink blooms. The flowers are composed of 5 petals: a standard, 2 free wing petals, and 2 fused petals. They give off a delicate, sweet fragrance, which has a sweet floral aroma with honeyed and musky notes. The fruit is a flat pod that splits at maturity, forcibly expelling its seeds away from the plant. It is essential to regularly remove wilted flowers, as seed production stunts flowering. Sweet peas root deeply in the ground to find water and nutrients.

Sweet peas are irreplaceable, their charming and old-fashioned flowers make quaint bouquets, look stunning in hanging baskets will soon cover up an old garden wall or fence. They are beautiful in summer flower beds, where they will use neighbouring plants or shrubs as a support. They can also form colourful carpets when grown as ground cover. Sweet peas are a must-have in cottage gardens alongside peonies, hollyhocks, fox gloves, peach leaved bellflowers, and columbines. They also do well in the fertile and well-watered soil of the vegetable garden, where they can be used as cut flowers.