Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas are grown for the fragrant colourful flowers and are easiest to grow from seed as annuals.

You can grow them in the garden or in containers and with both all and dwarf varieties there is a sweet pea for every garden situation.

How To grow Sweet Peas

The best time to sow sweet pea seeds has traditionally been in autumn, however the actual time will depend on your climate and the variety.

You can start the seeds off indoors earlier than you can outdoors, we suggest using small biodegradable pots, rolled up newspaper tubes, or even toilet rolls. Anything that is biodegradable that you fill with soil plant a seed in and then plant into the garden or a container.

• All varieties require three main conditions
• A humus rich soil, well drained and fertile.
• A sunny position with at leas 6 hours of good sun a day.
• Protection from frosts and protection from strong winds.

Growing Sweet peas in the garden.

Planting the seeds.

• Chose protected a sunny position.
• Prepare the soil by digging in aged compost and cow manure.
• Put a climbing frame, trellis or bamboo Teepee in place.

Step By Step Planting

1. Sow the seeds directly or start them off in pots.
2. You can pre soak the seeds for faster germination if you wish.
3. Sow the seeds at around 2 cm deep and 15 cm apart.
4. Water in lightly.

Leave watering until the soil drys a little, wet soggy soils can cause the seeds to rot.

Germination will take between 8 and 16 days depending on conditions.
Protect young seedlings from slugs and snails.

Ongoing Care and Fertilisation.

• Keep the soil moist but not wet.
• Much around the plants to maintain a cool moist root run.
• Use a liquid seaweed and fish fertiliser every 3 – 4 weeks. Avoid high nitrogen fertilisers as these will promote lots of leafy growth but not as many flowers
• Protect from snails an slugs.

You can get Sweet Peas to repeat flower simply by deadheading regularly and not letting seed pods form, if you do this, you can have flowers for months.

Sweet Pea Varieties

Dwarf varieties

We also have the ‘dwarf’ sweet pea varieties, these will reach around 30cm. All are available as seeds or seedlings for sale from nurseries and garden centers. We generally prefer to grow from seeds as seedlings are a bit of a pain to transplant.

And if you really want to co ordinate the garden, we have flower colours, ranging from white through to blue, pink, red, lilac and mauves, we think a mixture looks great, although we have seen all white plantings of sweet peas that are stunning

Sweet Pea Fragrance.

Some varieties are simply more fragrant than others, however fragrance is also influenced by temperature and humidity as with many plants.

Best Sweet Pea Varieties

If you are looking for some really good varieties, great colours and some with great perfume, try Dr Keith Hammett in New Zealand. Varieties such as ‘High Scent’, More Scent’, High Society’, Original, being amongst the most fragrant.

The ‘Spencer’ Sweet Peas are very popular, fragrant and long stems. The ‘Spencer Ripple Mix’ and  ‘Spencer Giant Mix’ are two to look for.

Sweet Pea Seeds and plants are available for sale from the following nurseries

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