It’s Sweet peas sowing time! You might have seen lots of people going on about their autumn sown sweet peas on social media but now is also a perfect time for sowing sweet peas and they won’t be that far behind the autumn sown ones! I did sow in the autumn, see my guide here, but I am going to sow a few now too. My autumn sown ones have mostly been ok, lost a couple and I’ve had to pinch them back a bit to stop them getting leggy but its a very good way to get ahead and save time now when there is so much else you might want to sow. But I also have had a complete failure of my autumn sown sweet peas in the past, this was the year before last when we had that really cold prolonged spell of cold weather. The temperature in my unheated greenhouse went below -10 degrees for quite a few days and they never properly recovered from that. I lost a lot of stuff that year but I just resowed my sweet peas in the spring and still had a gloriously scented flower filled summer. Sometimes its good to do a second sowing especially if you want to extend the flowering. You can sow from now till end of March at least and you can even sow directly in April.
There is not much that beats a big bunch of sweet peas to dive your nose into. I love sweet peas mostly for that scent I think its my favourite flower scent just about pipping Lily of the valley. They are a bit of work to get going but once they are growing well your main job is to just keep cutting them and surely that is no chore!
So sowing is easy, the only thing to really be aware of is that they have big roots so sow into a nice long pot, I use 8 or 9cm pot or root trainers so that roots have a bit of a depth of soil to get going with. But pot size is less of an issue in the spring as they won’t be sitting in their pots very long, so just use whatever you have. I sow 2 seeds per pot and just plant the whole pot or module. I use peatfree compost, Melcourt Sylvagrow is my favourite. Some people recommend soaking the seeds but I’ve never done that and always have good germination. They need a bit of warmth at this time of year for germination but once you see those little green shoots then you can move them somewhere cooler. Keep them in good light so they don’t get too leggy. But don’t worry if they do, you can just pinch them out and they will bush out.
They need some support, either a wigwam or a A-frame and they will need tying in till the seedlings get established and starts using its tendrils to climb up. You can remove the tendrils if you feel so inclined as they can sometimes catch on to the flower stems and cause them to be distorted in shape. I tried this but then you have to a lot more tying in and they don’t grow quite as quickly so I’m not going to bother again. I’m not growing for perfection more to just have lots of colour and scent. I’ve also learnt to appreciate picking longer stems including the tendrils to add some nice texture to your bouquets. This is also useful for some varieties like Cupani which don’t have really long stems or later in the season when the stem length can shorten.
Sweet peas need plenty of nutrients and lots of water so struggle in a very dry summer but if you are patient and keep them going they can sometimes revive again once it rains. I mulch the area where I’m going to plant with well rotted manure and water well in dry spells. I will feed with a seaweed feed if they are looking a bit pale. They can suffer from mildew in a dry summer so plenty of water helps keep that at bay.
Above are a few varieties that I grew in 2023. From far left the dark red is Winston Churchill and then going clockwise round from there is Jilly, Beaujolais, Leamington, Flagship, Eclipse, Painted Lady, Valerie Harrod, Swan Lake and in the middle Nimbus. We will be getting Beaujolais back in stock very soon! You can see from this the subtle difference between Jilly and Swan Lake, Jilly is a much creamier white and Swan Lake a pure bright white.
I’m excited to be trying some of the new varieties that we have for sale this year, like Air warden, which is a bright scarlet. Noel Sutton looks gorgeous a mauve, a bit like Charlies Angels which we struggle getting stock of now. Plus I’m also sowing one called Pulsar which is another ruffled speckled variety but paler than Nimbus, and Annie B Gilroy which is a bright cerise pink.
We are also selling a bundle of our favourite sweet pea varieties here.
Ah so looking forward to picking the first bunch, its always a celebration in my household.
Higgledy Anne
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