For me and The Flower Shop, Pulborough, the arrival of ‘Sweet Pea‘ marks the start of the Spring/Summer season, soon to be followed by the Peony!

If you’ve wondered why there has been such a dramatic change in weather, Summer arriving with a BANG? I put this down to the arrival of sweet peas in the shop (funny how the BBC haven’t mentioned this).

I’ve been incredibly excited, anticipating their arrival. The unloading of the first stems was an event of pant-wetting proportions. You might have spotted me standing outside the shop, waiting for the David Baker van, hopping from one foot to the other like a child waiting for Father Christmas, wondering whether I needed the toilet.

I’m hoping to get my grubby little hands on bunches of Peony soon, at which point you might spot me running up and down Lower Street waving my knickers in the air, but if you miss that, I’ll pop an announcement on our Facebookie page.

Now that Flowers are grown and flown in from all over the world, they aren’t as seasonal as they were in the past. You can get almost any flower, at anytime of the year, but some flowers are either too delicate or too expensive to grow abroad and fly in. Sweet Pea and Peony are two flowers which remain traditionally English and very seasonal.

We get our Sweet-peas from local growers via Sussex wholesaler David Baker Ltd.

The best quality sweet peas have very long stems with a large, hanky-like, fragrant blooms and come in a rainbow of colours. They look simply stunning in the large bouquets or by themselves in tall vases and you’ll be very lucky to find them in supermarkets (other than the very obvious British ones), due to the fact that they are not mass produced and flown in from abroad.

The good weather has also been inspiring people to get filling their planters, baskets and window boxes with beautiful plants and floral displays. There  have also been a few people (my sister in-law for one), who just couldn’t be bothered to choose plants, fetch plants, arrange plants and plant plants, so instead brought in their weed-ridden containers for us to fill.

I think we’ll start by emptying out the contents of this window box, on to the compost heap, before refilling with an array of plants which will flower throughout the summer months.

If you’d like a stunning summer spectacle, just drop in with your containers (the more bizarre the better).

We'll be delighted to fill them for you.