It's no secret that my all-time favorite flowers are sweet peas. There are literally hundreds (and maybe even thousands!) of different sweet pea varieties offering flowers in a huge spectrum of colors and shades. And while I couldn't pick a single favorite sweet pea variety, I have lately become fascinated with the color changing sweet peas or 'shifters'.

These 'shifters' are sweet peas that have been specifically bred to morph from one color to another as the flower petals age. Sweet peas have about 5 or more flowers to a stem and they open from the bottom up so the color changes up the stem and make a spectacular display bearing different colored blooms at the same time. Both of these varieties were bred by Keith Hammett, a leading professional breeder of sweet peas and other ornamental plants.