Autumn is in full flow now, we have had a couple of frosts here and most of the plants in my cutting garden are looking a bit sorry for themselves now. The sunflowers are a bit bedraggled, the Cosmos are producing much smaller flowers but I’ve still got a few Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ going strong, the Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ is fading but still producing lots of flowers. But this is the cyclical nature of gardening which I love so I’m starting to clear things now and taking back a bit of control. I’ve still got some biennials to plant in the spaces made so it all fits together perfectly. My dahlias will be moved to the greenhouse and I’ll be planting my Ranunculus claws this week. My hardy annuals are all growing well and so far not touched by any slugs or snails.
I sowed my sweet pea seeds on the 7th October, just before I went on holiday, and they are just starting to peek their little green shoots above the compost. I sowed them in the greenhouse which is still nice and warm but once they are all showing I will move them somewhere cooler as I don’t want them to grow too fast. So outside in a sheltered spot or in a cold frame, or in my case I tend to keep them in the cooler half of my greenhouse which isn’t insulated. 
But there is still plenty of time to sow, any time until March in fact. Just remember once it gets colder they may not germinate outside so bring them in somewhere warm and then once germinated they can go back outside. I just protect mine with some fleece if we have a prolonged frost of below -5 degrees which they can suffer in. Hopefully my autumn sown varieties will be able to be planted out in late March, but from a winter sowing they will be good for planting in April. You really just have to play it by ear according to what the weather is like in early spring. I will sow some more in February too to extend the flowering season. For more information of autumn sowing of sweet peas see my previous blog post. Plus there is the more general advice in the Higgledy Garden seed sowing guide.
But I am planning on sowing a few more this week as we have added a couple more varieties to the Higgledy Garden Sweet pea range.
The first is Sweet pea ‘Mrs R Bolton’, we like to have a good range of the single colour cultivars and this one is a nice peachy colour, which will look fabulous in with the pastel shades of sweet peas.
I think it will go perfectly with the lilacs and blue shades of ‘Leamington’ and ‘Noel Sutton’. Add a bit of white of ‘Swan Lake’ and maybe a bit of pink from ‘Eclipse’ and you are sorted with a glorious bunch of romantic pastel shades. If you want to add a bit more of a richer colour palette then perhaps try the sumptuous dark purple ‘Flagship’ or dark almost black ‘Beaujolais’. I’m also excited about trying it with other peachy coloured annuals like Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’. Or the dark tones of Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ and the dusky blues of ‘Cerinthe’.
The second is Sweet pea ‘Sir Jimmy Shand’, this is a lovely variety with a ripple colour effect across the flower a bit like ‘Nimbus’ which unfortunately we are out of stock of at the moment. But this is a lighter shade of lilac in the stripes and ripples. Again this is probably more in the pastel tone end of the sweet pea colour range but we could all do with some more romance in this life. So a big bouquet of romantic pastel shades sounds perfect to me. This cultivar also has a frill to the petals, nice long stems and a good scent too.
I’m looking forward to trying it with the clear white of ‘Swan Lake’ and the pale pink of ‘Alan Williams’. I also think it will go well with the dark purple of ‘Flagship’. But it would also add a bit of brightness to one of the sweet pea mixes that we sell like ‘Starry Night’.
We have a special offer on at the moment of a bundle of sweet peas seeds that includes many of the varieties mentioned above. Have a look here.
Higgledy Anne
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