Plants, books, and art commingle throughout human history like the perfume of the sweet pea hanging in the summer air. To follow the scent of the flowers is like sniffing out a trail that travels back in time. The first appearance of sweet peas in writing and in art was in the late 1600s. Their first penned name was "Lathyrus distoplatyphylos, hirsutus, mollis, magno et peramoeno, flare odoro" or "a type of pea with different broad leaves; hairy, soft, large and delightful, with a blown up scent."  Dr. Casper Commelin published an article along with the first botanical illustration of the pea in his Hort-Medici Amstelodamensis (1697-1701). We've continued this long tradition of capturing this flower in art with this Raku glazed tile. Sweet peas are not the same as edible garden peas, in fact, they are toxic. Do not consume.

Leggy vines give way to long stemmed, multicolored fragrant blooms.