Heirloom Sweet Pea Seed Mix

According to traditional lore, poet John Keats first called these fragrant country flowers "sweet peas." It has also been called the queen of annuals and is the quintessential old fashioned English flower. Though accounts of this flower's origins differ, most historians agree that a Franciscan monk named Francisco Cupani found it growing when visiting the island of Sicily. In 1699, he sent the seeds of the plant to a botanist in Amsterdam, Dr. Casper Commelin, who published the first recorded description and illustration of sweet peas in 1701. Dr. Leonard Plukenet, the Royal Professor of Botany and gardener of Queen Mary, also recorded obtaining a specimen of sweet pea in the early 18th century.