Sweet Pea Villa Roma Scarlet

At last Sweet Peas are getting the recognition they so richly deserve! Villa Roma Scarlet has stalked off (ha ha!) with the 2011 Fleuroselect Gold Medal, the highest honor a seed variety can receive, and we think it's richly deserved. After all, how many plants give you armloads of sweetly fragrant, brightly colored blooms for up to 4 months straight . . . when they're only 10 inches high and wide?!

The 20 Fleuroselect judges were bowled over by Villa Roma Scarlet's strikingly bright color, overall plant attractiveness, and outstanding garden performance . . . in other words, EVERYTHING. And we have to agree. The flowers are incredibly brilliant, standing out even from a distance and suffused with that irresistible Sweet Pea aroma. Each stem bears a cluster of about 4, and this compactly mounded plant is simply packed with blooming stems.

The flowers begin in early summer and continue through early fall in most climates. Gardeners in the deep south and west do better with Sweet Peas in spring and fall, and they famously bloom all winter in subtropical climates. But Villa Roma Scarlet is quite heat tolerant, so even if other Sweet Peas have melted out in the summer heat of your garden, give this one a try and prepare to be wowed!

Villa Roma Scarlet is ideal for flowerpots, windowboxes, hanging baskets, and the good old garden soil -- in other words, just about anywhere! It doesn't vine, but masses together in a fiery display that steals the scene from all neighboring plants. If you're thinking of a combination planting, white annuals such as Sweet Alyssum and Lobelia are always good choices. In cool-season gardens, Pansy makes a fine companion. Villa Roma Scarlet shares its heavenly scent with all its less-fortunate neighbors, beautifully perfuming any sunny setting!

Like all Sweet Peas, Villa Roma Scarlet is easy to direct-sow from seed, or can also be started indoors in January for setting out in early spring. Vigorous, so easy to grow, and endlessly attractive, it's a must-have for any flower lover this year! Pkt is 25 seeds.