Nov
10

Garden Flower: Sweet Pea

13 Comments

A national favorite. The Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratusis) is native to the eastern Mediterranean. It was a major specialist crop in Britain until it fell out of fashion and the skills needed to grow it on a commercial level were lost with the change in taste. It is now making a well deserved resurgence and is being grown by a small number of boutique flower farmers such as ourselves.

They acquired their name from the sweet scent that emanates from these most delightful of climbing annuals. Availability in a myriad of colours combined with a long vase life makes the sweet pea the Queen of the Annuals. She is however a viperous monach and her peas or flowers should never be ingested for fear one may collapse in the conservatory and become a ‘bit part’ in a Miss Marple tale.

Being that the Higgledy Garden gets the sharp end of winter out here in East Anglia, we tend to leave planting until the spring. In milder climbs some folk sow them in October. Though having said we may give some a head start in the greenhouse and the cold frames and we’ll see how we do.

What varieties do you grow?

Mr Bigglesworth

Image from the RHS

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Posted in Blog Cut Flower Growing Guides
13 Comments Posted by Ben

13 Responses to "Garden Flower: Sweet Pea"

  • Plant Supports. | Higgledy Garden says:
    April 30, 2012 at 9:02 am
    Reply

    [...] more can I say? Be they for Sweet Peas, climbing Nasturtiums or just to add a bit of height – go forth, build those wonky structures [...]

  • Tweets that mention Garden Flower: Sweet Pea | Higgledy Garden -- Topsy.com says:
    January 26, 2011 at 12:19 pm
    Reply

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gardora, Garden Calendar. Garden Calendar said: Do you want to grow sweet peas in your garden? They can now be sown! About growing sweet peas: http://j.mp/eBqUnZ [...]

  • Sow Sweet Peas « Gardora.net says:
    January 26, 2011 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    [...] Do you want to grow sweet peas in your garden? They can now be sown! About growing sweet peas: http://j.mp/eBqUnZ [...]

  • English Cut Flowers. Which One Is King? | Higgledy Garden says:
    November 12, 2010 at 1:24 pm
    Reply

    [...] Well you got us thinking there my American cousins. How could one possibly judge which bloom to be the best English cut flower? Would it be on vibrancy of colour? Or extended vase life? Or a delightful scent? Shape or texture? Does the romantic rose win over the cheerful Zinnia or the traditional values of the lavender or sweet pea? [...]

  • JW Blooms says:
    November 12, 2010 at 12:25 am
    Reply

    Oh, god – I’ve just realised my question about your readers may have come across as “what’s in it for me?” which is not a motive I would ever resort to. Was just trying to be funny. (Is that what the young people call an “epic fail”?) I’m thrilled to be asked and am certainly not looking for any payback or free advertising. Hope you didn’t think that.
    My blog stats are roughly the same as yours – sometimes, suddenly, a couple of hundred people find it, I don’t know how, and sometimes it’s just a handful of, I suspect, friends. I have no idea how many are returning visitors as I don’t know how to work that out. In fact, could I pick your brain about that sort of thing sometime?
    As for you being funny, don’t tone it down. Your posts are great. The number of people looking for flower advice is surely limited, whereas even if I knew absolutely nothing about flowers, I would still read because you make me laugh. Jan

    • Ben says:
      November 13, 2010 at 8:48 am
      Reply

      Aw thank you Jan! I didn’t think for a minute your motives were less than pure.
      I can teach you how to find about returning visitors…it only takes a click….you just need to set up google analytics (which is a synch)…happily about 75% of our visits are from people who have been before…and we’ve now reached page one on google for English Cut Flowers and page two for British cut flowers…I have a feeling we’re not going to be able to grow enough on our small patch…perhaps we can source some from your expansive acreage? ;)

  • JW Blooms says:
    November 10, 2010 at 9:10 pm
    Reply

    You must try autumn sowing – they’re so much better. As long as they’re a decent size, I’m sure they’ll withstand anything East Anglia can throw at them. (Mind you, even having travelled across Siberia, I can honestly say the coldest I’ve ever been was in Norfolk…) Mine froze and thawed out so many times last winter that I was sure I’d lose them, but they were fine in a cold frame. Jan
    So excited by “boutique flower farmer” btw – am getting my business cards reprinted immediately.

    • Ben says:
      November 11, 2010 at 9:46 am
      Reply

      Ha! Yes indeed I rather like the ‘Boutique Flower Farmer’ vibe. In NZ where I like to spend time when I can, there are many small vineyards which describe themselves as boutique. For me it conjures up images and ideas of being unique, different, high quality…slightly renagade(!)…
      How would you feel about being a guest blogger on Higgledy and giving us an article on your wedding flowers…obviously making links back to jw blooms? It wouldn’t matter if it were a rehashed one from something you’ve already done.
      Benji :)

      • JW Blooms says:
        November 11, 2010 at 10:52 am
        Reply

        Would be thrilled! Boutique flower farmer and guest blogger all in one week – my life is on the up! Email me to tell me what you require. x PS Without wishing to provoke cries along the lines of “kettle, pot, black” etc, does anybody other than me actually read this blog? (Am really just trying to goad people into commenting for you.)

        • Ben says:
          November 11, 2010 at 6:12 pm
          Reply

          The Blog is only a few weeks old and at best gets 100 visits a day and at worst 10! 65% are returning visitors. The graph is steadily rising…(we appear number 11 in the google rankings for ‘English Cut Flowers’ already!!! )I appreciate your goading!!! I’m not too worried about numbers just yet as I’m still finding the blog’s identity…I thought perhaps I was trying to be too funny and should concentrate on accurate information on cut flowers…but to be honest that will just bore me and the posts that I have tried feel somewhat lifeless. With regard to your guest bloging I will make a link to it in my category section under weddings (We’re not contemplating weddings for a while) Any wedding leads we get we’re happy to pass on to you. Though our internet presence is small our ‘real’ presence in our locality is very healthy, with five good and solid outlets wishing to take our produce come the spring…probs as much as we can produce in our small garden. Our blog site will be on the label of every bunch that goes out.

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