Topic: Todays work

[shirlton]

Layered Sweet peas and Supersprouts buttercup squash

[lorna]

Shirl. Please be gentle with a thicko ;D I would like to do better with sweet peas next year. I have got loads of flowers which I pick every day BUT they do have lots of kinky stems. I have them growing up a net. Do you put a cane for each plant? As suggested in another thread do you remove tendrils? How exactly do you layer them? Lots of questions but I do love sweet peas, my bathroom and bedroom are smelling lovely :) I don't put them in the lounge as scented flowers play Joshua's allergies up. TIA
Lorna.

[mc55]

Lorna, you are not alone - what is layering ?  and why have you done it ???

Mine are growing up a wigwam and are pretty vigorous with lots of flowers being produced (which I cut a couple of times a week)

[shirlton]

 Lorna if you are just growing for the garden then it's ok just to leave them go their own way. I used to grow them for show and once you have had large blooms on long stems it difficult to be satisfied with any thing else. It's quite time consuming to grow them as single cordons but I think its worth it, I only let one stem grow( the strongest) and I take all the tendrils and side shoots off as they grow. They grow too tall for me to reach the top and this is where layering comes in. I just take the first four in the row and lay the to the side and then the next one in line is taken down  and layed along to ground and then the growing end is tied to the first cane and so on until you get to the end of the row. The tricky bit is when you get to going round the other side with them. I'm sure there must be some instructions on the net somewhere that will give a diagram. Will have a look for you. PS. I am growing some just for the seed so will hopefully have some to swap

[shirlton]

Found this for you Lorna    Choose your varieties carefully (see Favourite Sweet Peas). Whether you wish to grow varieties for exhibition or for decoration, it pays to select named ...
www.sweetpeas.org.uk/how.htm - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
Their instructions will probably be easier to understand tham my ramblings,lol

[lorna]

Shirl, many thanks, I have bookmarked that link. I thought that layering might be something like that, when we lived in Sussex a friend used to layer our hedges round our field. That always fascinated me. I will have a good read. I am thinking I would like to try and layer just a few next year just to see how I get on. Can you recommend named varieties please.
Lorna.

[shirlton]

I will see how my seed saving goes and I will send you some Lorna. I only grow Spencers. I have Charlies Angel (IMO) the best there is. Anniversary, Jilly, White supreme, Mrs. Bernard Jones, My friend got me some seeds from the gardeners world show that I wanted and I have sown a few last week of each sort hoping that I will have more seed for putting in when October comes. It may prove impossible to get them that quick but it's worth a try. The ones that I am growing just for seed are only just beginning to set seed. Everything depends on the weather now. Will post a pic of them when they start to get up the canes a bit more. If you look on the net you will get some idea of what they look like. The new one sI have are Mollie Rilstone, Apricot Queen, Sarah Kennedy and an old favourite of mine Brian Clough. All these are good for growing or showing

[lorna]

Many thanks Shirl. I have made a note of the varieties you listed. The link you gave is quite informative will be a big help.
Lorna.