(L. odorata) Ella said it best “I never knew the charm of spring, / Never met it face to face. / I never knew my heart could sing, / Never missed a warm embrace / Till April in Paris.” When it comes to sweet peas I prize subtlety and elegance over the boisterous and what I often find to be somewhat gaudy. April in Paris is pure class: tall 5-6’ plants with large gently frilled, creamy white blooms, the petals just blushing to a purple fringe at the edges. While much of sweet pea breeding has been focusing on flashy looks, this represents New Zealand breeder Dr. Keith Hammett’s attempt to marry the old fashioned scent to the modern sweet pea looks. The fragrance is an epiphany and will reduce you to mumbling gibberish as your body trips the fuse to your brain to focus more clearly on the olfactory bliss happening in the nose. By far the most arresting scene on the farm one year was the row of April in Paris flanked by two beds of “Bee’s Friend”, all against a backdrop of 5’ tall swaying golden “Terra” oats. This is why we grow things. Rare. (That's a link up there folks so click, sit back and dream...) 80 days. LS
