Lathyrus odoratus Mollie Rilstone - Sweet Pea Seeds

'Mollie Rilstone' is a recent sweet pea variety with a retro "English cottage" look about it. Its long stems are adorned with small clusters of sophisticated, cream-coloured flowers with delicate antique-pink speckled edging. Buds and flowers alike will be perfect in soft fragrant bouquets. Make sure you plant these annuals in a sunny spot with plenty of good, moist soil.

Lathyrus odoratus is an annual herbaceous plant of the Fabaceae family originating from south-eastern Italy and Sicily. ‘Mollie Rilstone’ is a climbing variety: it can reach up to 1.80 m in height and 30 cm in width in the space of a few months. Its long, sturdy 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 medium-sized, papilionaceous flowers are grouped in axillary clusters of 2 to 3 creamy-white flowers with speckled antique pink edging. The flowers are composed of 5 petals: a standard, 2 free wing petals, and 2 fused petals. They give off a very powerful 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.