The sweet smell of success!

Published on: 12 February 2015

Many of you will know that in my working life horticulture has been my occupation for 50 years.

Working with plant breeding and production I was often asked as to what was my favourite flower.

I have to admit that my favourite is the Sweet Pea.

Why? Well it’s easy to grow, reliable, comes in many colours and has the most wonderful scent; it ticks all the boxes.

A few years ago as a way of encouraging people to think about Parish Share, I gave everybody in the deanery a packets of Sweet Pea seeds that we called Parish Share Pink, asking them to grow them in the garden to help them keep Parish Share in mind.

I can’t prove that a packet of seeds actually made a huge difference in payments of Parish Share, but what it did was to keep it in their minds – a very visual reminder of the importance of it.

To this day people still talk to me about the year we all grew our Sweet Peas, so this year I am pleased to offer free of charge (apart from the postage) two packs of sweet pea seeds.

One called ‘Sweet Pea Stewardship’ – a lovely mixture of 12 colours
One called ‘Sweet Pea Legacy’ – a mix of blues, purple, lavender white and cream.

If you would like to grow some please send a stamp addressed envelope, A5 in size, with two 2nd class stamps on it to me at Diocesan House. Seed will go out in rotation from the end of February in good time for sowing in the spring.

I very much hope you are successful, enjoy the results and keep in mind stewardship and legacies within your parish. Sowing a packet of seeds requires a lot of faith; but as they grow so too can our faith.