Topic: Sweet peas

[smartie]

Sorry, I am about to show my total newbie ignorance here......

I have always absolutely adored sweet peas and now that I have somewhere to plant them I am sorely tempted, even though my lottie is intended for veg. I know I won't be able to grow them from seed now, but if I bought some young plants or something from a garden centre would they have a chance of surviving if planted out now?
Is it even too late for sweet peas, I think they flower about now (I can't remember as no-one I know has grown them since I was about 8 years old!!) Will they even still be on sale anywhere?
I know this is something I can research and look into when I get home tonight, but I thought someone might be able to help in the mean-time?

Ohhh I can't wait till I know all this stuff.....!  :-\

[Palustris]

It is not too late to plant them out, but it is almost certainly too late to buy any. They would just flower that little bit later than normal and probably not grow as tall, but if you see them, try them!

[undercarriage plan]

They were still to be had in our local garden centre, probably last weekend you could get them.  Hope you find some. Enjoy.  Lottie

[wardy]

I only planted mine out today up here in the frozen north.  I bet you can get plants at your local garden centre or someone local selling them.  I'm in Derbyshire so folks have only started planting out this week so we have stuff in our garden centres now for planting out

I've grown mine from seed put into toilets rolls.  They've made lovely plants with great roots which have grown through the rolls and out of the bottom

I hope they make lovely plants.  They'd better smell gorgeous or I want my money back  :)

[honeybee]

Same here Wardy, i didnt want to buy any as i have grown mine from seed however the two suppliers that i use, i noticed there were not any sweat peas available and so i asked the guy and he said that they were not available to purchase until two weeks ago.
Ive been out and about today and seen quite a few for sale, so it all depends on where you live i suppose.

My seedlings are coming along nicely and ive put trellis outside the front door ready for the proposed fantastic display that i am expecting  ;D

[maz]

Ive got some dwarf ones in hanging baskets.

The talls ones are still in our garden centre too, but then Im only 40 mins on the train from HB.

[Val]

My first year of growing the dwarfs in hanging baskets, they're coming on, I'm itching to see what they'll be like, are they perfumed?

[dibberxxx]

planted mine out a few weeks ago but there are still plenty of them in garden centers

[smartie]

Thanks everyone, I found some at the weekend and have planted them out. So that's one of my smaller childhood dreams fulfilled.......!
Fingers crossed they grow ok!  :D

[honeybee]

Sweet peas had a huge impact on me when i was a little girl too Caire.
I remember we went to my Aunties and Uncles to visit when i was about 6 or 7 years old.

My Uncle was a very keen gardener and i always remember even then, how i couldnt wait to get to their house to see what was going on in the garden and on this particular visit he had planted masses of sweet peas on canes.
The whole effect took my breath away. :)

From that day onwards i couldnt wait to grow up and have my own sweet peas in my garden. ;D
Oh for the simple pleasures in life ;) :D

Good luck with yours Claire and dont forget an update later on :)

[GREENWIZARD]

flowers which remind me of my childhood are:
daffodils~always bought my mammy a bunch for mother's day
fuchsias~granny grew them
hydrangeas~auntie had some in her front garden
rhododendrons & roses~grew in abundance in the daisy park in glasgow green where we played
                                        hide'n'seek as weans

thanks h & c-s you've brought back alot of good memories
ps~ i also love growing sweet peas but unfortunately the aphids love to munch them :'(

[smartie]

Oh no! I hope they leave mine alone!!

[honeybee]

Sweet Williams always remind me of Whit walks  :)

My mum would set too with the sewing machine and make me a lovely white dress, i would have new white shoes and little white ankle socks and on the morning of the walks she would nip into the garden and make me a posy from sweet williams and wrap them up creatively in tin foil for me to carry  :D

Those were the days, but i certainly cant look at sweet williams today without thinking of those times  :)

[smartie]

My friends mum used to grow sweet peas when I was all of about 6, so they remind me of birthday partys with my best frock and shoes on, playing pass the parcel, eating jelly and ice cream and too much cake and icing and then wandering down the passageway at the side of their house past all the lovely smelling sweet peas to play in the garden. They always used to give me some to take home to my mum too, which made me feel so special!
I can't imagine kids today being too impressed with such simple pleasures (unless they did Burberry patterned flowers with a free mobile phone) (not that I'm a cynic or anything!) but to me this was just the best thing ever!! Sigh............  ;)

[David K]

I've grown both decorative & exhibition sweet peas for many years. The seed for exhibition blooms are sown in October, those for decorative blooms can be sown in either October or March.

Regarding hanging basket sweet peas, be assured  they are equally scented as other varieties.

Good luck.  :)

[clairenpaul]

Love em - just noticed our first flower today (sown in toilet roll tubes last October and planted out in April). its pale pink but can't remember the variety as we've lost the label (just for a change :))

[FloBen]

I've got some questions about sweet peas.

I planted seeds in pots in the green house in the autumn. They all came up and when they got to 4inches high I did what I thought was 'pinching out the growing tips', after that they grew no more, went yellow and died off after I planted them out at the begining of May. What did I do wrong? wold they have needed feeding? what exactly is the growing tip - I assummed it was the bit at the top of the stem between the highest pair of leaves.

second part of the story. When I planted out the plants, I popped another seed in with each one bcause I thought they might not survive. These have all come up and are growing well, but I haven't done any pinching, and they all seem to have shot up two extra stems from the base of the original one. What's going on here? do I need to do some pinching? what's the purpose of it anyway?

varieties I planted were 'Elizabeth Taylor' from Kings and 'Charlie's Angel' from Unwins ( I think) but I don't know which are which now.

I really love sweet peas, so I hope these ones work!

Flo x

[clairenpaul]

Hi Flo  :)

Not an expert by any means but for the last fewyears I've started sweet peas off in Autumn - planted in toilet roll tubes and kept in coldframe over winter. I've never pinched them out or fed them - just left them to it until planting them out. I knowyou are supposed to pinch some plants out to make them more bushy and produce more flowers but I suppose from your experience that maybe you don't do it with sweet peas. I've read somewhere that if you are growing them for a show you should pinch out the side shoots but I've never done that either and they always look gorgeous.

At least your seeds are growing so you should have a good display  :) :)

When they do flower - keep cutting them for the house as the plants will produce more flowers then.

[FloBen]

Thanks Clairenpaul - that's good news!  :D

I've just been to our allotment assoc. and the model allotment there has got the most mazing display of sweetpeas already! I hope mine manage to flower this year - the plants are less than a foot high at the moment...

flo x