POPLUAR VARIETIES OF SWEET PEA

Alan Titchmarsh - a sweet pea with large soft almond pink to cream flowers

Sweet Pea Black Knight An heirloom variety of sweet pea with deep maroon and violet bicolour flowers.

Butterfly - Another heirloom variety of Sweet Pea thought to have been introduced to the UK in the late 1870's . Has  white flowers tinged with lilac.

Spencer Giant - large flowers in mixed colours

Cupid Sweet Peas -dwarf varieties of Sweet Pea  growing to about 1 foot high and needing little or no support.

GROWING GUIDES

PLANT SOCIETIES

SWEET PEA (LATHYRUS ODORATA)

pink and blue scented sweet pea flowersSweet Peas are popular annuals that can be treated in different ways.

They are easy to grow flowers, with many varieties having a wonderful scent.

Some heirloom varieties of Sweet Pea date back to the sixteenth century.

Sweet Pea is a plant native to the eastern Mediterranean region of Europe from Sicily to Crete.

WHEN TO PLANT SWEET PEA SEEDS

Sweet Peas can either be sown in pots or boxes in a frame or greenhouse in January or February or directly into the open ground in March or April, and in the former instance the seedlings are planted out about 6 inches apart in April or May.

When to sow sweet pea seeds for the best flowers? To obtain the finest flowers Sweet Pea seed is sown by keen gardeners for exhibition in a frame, the seedlings being kept in this until the following April when they are planted out in deeply worked, well manured ground and an open, sunny place.

PLANTING OUT SWEET PEAS

pink sweet peas in flowerThe young sweet pea plants are planted out spaced 1 foot apart, usually in a double row 1 foot wide, with a 4 or 5 foot alleyway between this and the next row.

Each Sweet Pea plant is given a tall bamboo cane and is restricted to one stem only, which is regularly tied to the cane.

Sweet Peas can also be grown through trellis and wigwam style supports.

All side growths and tendrils should be removed from the growing Sweet Pea plants.

CARE OF SWEET PEA PLANTS

white sweet pea grown from seedWhen the Sweet Pea plant reaches the top of the cane it is untied, laid along the rows for several feet and then tied to the bottom of another cane which it can continue to ascend.

This is known as the cordon system.

The natural system is to allow the Sweet Pea plants to grow unchecked and climb into brushy hazel branches stuck into the ground as for sticking culinary peas.

HOW TO KEEP PRODUCING SWEET PEA FLOWERS

To keep a continuous display of Sweet Pea flowers in the gardening keep picking the flowers. These can be for cut flowers for indoor vases or simply dead headed.

Either way you don't want the Sweet Pea plants to produce seed pods - because if Sweet Peas are allowed to go to seed they will stop flowering.

SWEET PEA SEEDS ARE POISONOUS

It is important to be aware that Sweet Pea seeds are toxic

GARDENING ADVICE ARTICLES ON GARDEN GROWER

Winter Pests | How to grow pumpkins | Organic Gardening | Lily Beetle | Lady's Slipper Orchid |Lavender | Mealy Bug | Clay Soils | Nitrogen Deficiency | CapsicumClematis | Spinach | Lawnmowers for sale in Somerset | Runner Beans | Rhododendron Nurseries | Growing Plants using Hydroponics | Parsnip | Garden Sheds Oxfordshire | Top Soil Suppliers West Sussex | Palms and Palm Tree Nurseries | Devon Garden Centres | Growing Millet Seed | Onion Sets |

How to Grow Sweet Peas, When to Plant, When to sow Sweet Pea seeds, How to keep Sweet Peas Flowering