How to grow: Sweet Peas

Almost everyone would recognise a sweet pea and along with the rose they are one of the nation’s favourite flowers. They are the quintessential cottage garden flower, renowned for glorious colour, fragrant perfume, and the ability to produce vase after vase of blooms throughout the summer months.

The sweet pea is an easy plant to grow and perfect for young budding gardeners. Here we take at a look at how to grow sweet peas step by step;

Sowing the seeds

Sweet peas benefit from soaking overnight in tepid water which will re-hydrate them and help them to germinate quicker. Don’t worry if you forget as they will still germinate, only a little slower.

Sow three seeds, about 1cm deep, in 8cm fibre pots, then gently water. Place the pots in a plastic bag on a warm windowsill, conservatory or greenhouse and you should start seeing the tiny shoots emerge in between 10-20 days. Remove the plastic bag when the seedlings are about a couple of centimetres high.

The seedlings

Once the seedlings start to grow they romp away and become quite leggy if left to their own devices. However, if you pinch out the growing tip of each plant just above a set of leaves, this will encourage new side shoots resulting in a bushier plant with more flower stems. Depending on the vigour of your plants, you may need to insert a small cane in each pot to support the growing shoots. Give your plants a little warmth with plenty of light and moist compost and they will be ready to plant out after the danger of frost has passed.

Planting out in the garden

For a couple of weeks before you plant out your sweet peas, get them used to cooler conditions as it would be too much of a shock were you to take them straight from the warmth into the relatively cold of the garden.

Sweet peas love rich loam so to give them a good start, dig some compost into the soil before planting. Bury each pot complete with its three seedlings and water well. For maximum flowers, position them in the sun and feed regularly once the flowers have started to appear. In dry weather, don’t let the plants dry out; they love a moist root run.

Support your climber

Sweet peas climb using tendrils that wrap around anything suitable they touch. Many people use mesh held up on long garden canes to provide support but there are other ways to do this. A ‘wigwam’ made up of natural thin branches looks in keeping with the cottage garden style or allow the plants to clamber up a fence.

After planting the fibre pots complete with seedlings, help the sweet pea by giving each plant some additional support by tying it in to the structure. This is just until they start growing and the tendrils start curling.  There are some varieties of sweet peas that require little or any support and even those for containers and hanging baskets.

Flowers for the house

Apart from smelling gorgeous, sweet peas will flower their socks off as long as you remember a couple of important things. Never, ever, let a pod develop as this will stop any further flowers appearing. It’s as though the plant thinks that if a pod is produced then it has done its job, which is to continue the species, so it has no need to create any more flowers. Any spent blooms must be cut off before the pea pod stage. This has the advantage of, the more blooms cut for the house, the more blooms will appear.

Here at Birstall Garden and Leisure Centre we stock only the very best quality seed from Suttons and Unwins, guaranteed to be fresh giving you the best possible start. Take a look at our online store for a great selection of flower and vegetable seeds including many varieties of sweet peas.

Published March 11th, 2015 by Jordan. Article ref 3669

Tags: seedlings, seeds, sweet peas

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