Cupani Sweet Peas and Hidcote Lavender, both deep purple but the Lavender like velvet and the sweet peas like silk.
Cupani has a strong rich scent, especially in the sun.
I’m photographing the vase on the recently arrived limestone rocks to celebrate their arrival. These are huge, and have to be moved into position with a digger later in the year when the earth is dry and the heavy machinery won’t compress the soil too much. The rock is beautiful, full of ancient shells.
Over at Rambling in the Garden You can see vases from around the world.
Absent Gardener 
What gorgeously rich, opulent colour, I just adore these colours I bet it smells wonderful too. Your rocks and the view are breath-taking.
They are gorgeous aren’t they. I think they are the only ones that came up out of 4 types I planted. They are so strong that they completely enclosed one of my lilies. It was flowering away covered by leaves and entangled by tendrils.
They are so gorgeous. I’m missing my sweet peas already. I keep going out and looking at my little seedlings and hoping the mice don’t get them. Thanks for sharing. Oh, and that view is so beautiful too. Karen
Oh, good for you that you have them growing already. I didn’t know that mice would eat the seedlings, I wonder if they ate my other ones? I’m having a battle with mice and rats at the moment – if only they would stay outside.
I’ve got those humane traps in the potting shed after one ran over my foot and ate the biscuit crumbs. I wish it was connected to my laptop though, with an alarm. I keep having to run out every half hour to check it. Can’t bear the thought of the poor things scrabbling away inside. I’m relocating them to the woods- but now feeling guilty and dropping off seeds and bird food in case they are hungry. There’s no hope for me.
Oh, I know how you feel. I had a similar experience the other day in the greenhouse, but they aren’t causing any trouble out there at the moment so they can stay. It’s inside that they are driving me crazy making nests in clothing and towels. Interestingly there were empty snail shells in one nest, so they must be like hedgehogs and eat snails. Don’t ask me how they brought them in. We have a rat trap which kills instantly with a bolt to the head, but they quickly learned to stay away from it.
We’ve got them in the loft. Can hear them leaping around in the night. We find little piles of cherry stones. Try the humane traps. They love peanut butter and raisins. They are too clever for the bolt traps, and horrible job removing their bodies from them. I’m having a lot of success with the live capture ones. Good luck xxx
Oh your rocks are fantastic – what are your plans for them? Limestone is often such a fascinating rock to examine, as you have said. Your view is amazing too and I don’t think we realised quite what your location was. And finally, of course your sweet peas and lavender make a beautiful pairing and the scent must be wonderful – thank you for all that you have shared today, Cath
Thank you Cathy, the plan for the rocks is to set them partly into the soil at the top of the ridge (out of the picture to the left and toward the camera). Then they are supposed to continue down the hill and form a pool at the bottom. In between we will plant small phormium and native plants as well as other flowers. I think we will need a few more rocks to achieve this though. 🙂
Ooh, sweet peas! I adore them and your arrangement with lavender must smell divine. Your limestone looks promising, can’t wait to see what you create with the rock.
Thanks Eliza, they do smell lovely. I’m looking forward to having the rocks in place, it will be a few more months though. Hopefully we will be able to dig the septic tank dug at the same time.
Beautiful colours and combination. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Wow, fantastic deep jewel tones! And I can just imagine the scents. I love rocks in the garden and have some shell dotted limestone as well – what are you planning for the rocks?
How are you using your rocks? We are planning a sort of rock garden going down the hill into a small pool at the bottom. This is the very first part.
I have small pools of shells in my garden (kind of Japanese) with the limestone rocks in them, much smaller than yours. I hope you post pictures when the rocks are placed, it sounds like a great idea.
I couldn’t decide which was prettier – the sweetpeas, the rock, or that view! All are glorious.
Thank you for such nice comments 🙂
I, too, am knocked out by all of the above.
Thank you 🙂
Beautiful shades and textures in your vase, but those rocks and the view beyond just took my breath away!
Thanks Cathy. The headland across the channel looks sort of like limestone, but I don’t think it is. We are right next to a. limestone area but where we are is geologically older, so we have been looking enviously at limestone rocks beside the road.
It looks so springy in your area. Wonderful to see as we go into winter. Your peas are lovely. I can rarely get them to grow here. They don’t last through our hot, dry summers so I admire them wherever they grow.
I have had the same problem during drought years. Last year it was a fairly moist summer and I followed Cathy’s advice to pick them every week so they flowered for ages. This Cupani seems to be a strong grower, it has long since left its little teepee and is taking off all over the place. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage that.
These colours go wonderfully together and I am imagining the scent. What fun you’ll have positioning the rocks.
I’m looking forward so sowing my sweet peas early next year. Reading this reminded me that my first sowing was eaten last year. I went out one day to find only the green shoots lying on the soil in the pots. The mice had taken the peas!
Oh , I have seen that with green Peas but not with sweet peas. My first sowing this year was this one, and they did well. The next two didn’t work. Maybe mice, or weather or position …
Cathy, the rocks are gorgeous! I can hardly wait to see them placed on the ridge. You may find some interesting fossils inside, also. Your sweet peas are lovely, I think they’re my favorite flower, along with dahlias. Your flower arrangements are so balanced and satisfying! Thanks.
Dorothy.
Thank you 🙂 I’m very much looking forward to getting them in place. We received some more granite rocks as well so we can get on with a few more retaining walls, once we finish getting the vegetable garden under way.