I have just had the honour of being asked to name a sweet pea . To get it wrong would be rather like giving an unsuitable name to a child. (I have never understood how parents can decide on a name for their baby before looking into their newborn’s eyes.) I wanted the flower and its name to be compatible, as well as appropriate and flattering. I’ve never met a sweet pea I didn’t like. True, I would never grow those of solid bright-scarlet because I don’t have that colour in my garden, or indeed my home, but all sweet peas carry a gentleness and fragility to them that I find adorable. Their petals always make me think of butterflies’ wings. Their perfume is, to me, the essence of an early summer garden, just as that of wallflowers is synonymous with late spring. It is a perfume I cannot get enough of.…