Sowing sweet peas: it's not too late!

Sweet peas are on trend for 2013, according to Matthew Appleby, who wrote a feature on them I commissioned recently in Weekend magazine. Of course, for many of us gardeners they've never been out of fashion: a timeless garden classic. I've been growing them for several years now, and sowing batches from October to December has become a bit of an autumn ritual.

It's worth sowing in autumn if you can: the seedlings get plenty of time to develop a tiptop root system and are ready to romp away when planted out in March or early April. Sowing in the cardboard inner toilet roll tubes filled with multipurpose peat free compost, one or two seeds per tube, gives the roots space to grow. (I fill a deep, round saucer with compost-filled tubes and hold them together with string so they don't topple.)

Usually I grow a hotchpotch of varieties, more for scent than colour coordination ('Kings' High Scent' and 'Perfume Delight' both from Kings' Seeds are particularly good), but I am always drawn to the darker colours, like the classic 'Matucana' (pictured above). So this year I thought I'd try out a new colour scheme: I am growing 'Blue Velvet' and 'Midnight' (both from T&M), and combining them with the species Lathyrus chloranthus 'Lemonade', with its lime-green flowers: a colour that should pop against the darkness of the other flowers.

Sadly, 'Lemonade' has no scent, but I am hoping the L. odoratus cultivars will live up to their name. I haven't sowing this yet, as the cultivation advice seems to suggest early spring sowing is best. But don't worry if you think you've missed the boat: it really is fine to sow these seeds any time through October to December. They'll need some kind of cover over winter - mine are in my potting shed, and get by swathed in some fleece when it's really cold. My other sweet pea tip is to put them somewhere easily accessible: some people find the deadheading, tying in and coaxing required to get sweet peas to perform their best a chore, but provided they're close at hand, just outside my patio window, I find tending to my plants and picking armfuls for the house for a few minutes each day a little piece of sweet pea heaven.

Above is a simple vase of flowers with a pink theme I picked last summer: with one dark sweet pea and one shocking pink one, plus sage leaves, red valerian, a pink rose, and blackcurrant sage flowers. If I can create something just as good in 2013, I'll be happy.

 

 

Comments

[GotaLottie]

There's an elderly man on an allotment near the house who grows the most incredible display of sweetpeas each year. We managed to catch him on site a few weeks ago and ask for some dry pods, hoping to grow these on our own allotment.

We left them a couple of weeks in an envelope and popped them in the fridge for a few days down amongst the salad, prior to sowing them 3 weeks ago.

They're all away now and without a single casualty. They're all in a cold frame now but I like the advice of adding a layer or two of fleece as protection. It seems to make so much sense to start them off now - for a bigger show next year.

They're definitely not out of favour or fashion with us, how could that ever be possible. They'll be grown up wigwams of canes and will hopefully play their part in attracting the pollinators to our plot.

[Veg Plotting]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who advocates the use of loo roll innards! They're great for growing on chitted parsnips too.

[Nigel Boldero]

Hi- enjoyed looking at your blog and especially this post. I'm a keen sweet pea grower, but don't usually have the patience needed to tie in and dead head frequently enough! i'm now following you. If you're interested, my own, newish blog is at www.audaxdesign.co.uk called 'Old School Garden'. Any comments or suggestions welcomed!