The Sweet Pea is April's Birth Flower

Everyone knows that they have a specific birthstone that is placed in jewelry and trinkets to signify the month they were born in. However, many people don't know that just like the stones, each month has a flower or two as well, which symbolizes birth. Here is the history and meaning behind your birth flower.

April: Sweet Pea
Alternate: Daisy

The Sweet Pea with the botanic name of Lathyrus odoratus is a native flower plant of the eastern Mediterranean region from Sicily to Crete. It is a climbing plant which can grow up to 2 meters when there is support available, like a wall or fence. The original wild plant is purple in color, where as many cultivators have created other colors.

Hence their name, Sweet Pea's have a sweet fragrance and is used by many gardeners just for the scent it gives off in their garden. Sweet Pea's generally are in bloom from March till November, and do best in cool damp climates.

Fun and interesting fact: In the 1980's, in a small town in England called Wem, the Sweet Pea Society of Wem started an annual festival celebrating this flower. Many of the street signs now carry a picture of the Sweet Pea, and a small area of town is referred to Eckford Park after the nurseryman Henry Eckford who cross-bred and developed the Sweet Pea plant.