But however they look or smell, all sweet peas are grown in the same way. Sweet pea plants need supports to climb – use bamboo sticks or trellises. Throughout the season you’ll need to keep your flowers well watered, as dry soil makes them go to seed quicker. How to Harvest and Store Your Peas. Check a few of the biggest pods randomly to see if they are the size you want. I can remember helping my Dad to prick out seedlings, even before I could see over the top of the potting bench. Discover lathyrus. There is something nostalgic about sweetpeas. *Your 20% discount only applies to plants, bulbs and seeds.© 2020 Thompson & Morgan. The sweetly scented flowers of sweet peas come in a variety of colors ranging from pure white to bright magenta. The more you pick, usually, the more your plants will produce. For an expert, the distinction is in the ‘keel’ petals (the lowest two petals) – grandiflora types have a ‘clamped’ keel, while Spencer types don’t. They’re ideal for cutting as the more blooms you harvest, the more they grow. My mother always grew sweet peas and I remember the varieties to this day: ‘Leamington’, lavender blue, ‘Air Warden’, scarlet, ‘Elizabeth Taylor’, burgundy and ‘Mrs R. Bolton’, pink. If one does not germinate, I do not replace them. When plants are 10cm tall, pinch out the tips to encourage bushy growth. Horticultural convention has it that you should sow sweet peas in autumn, but although this will give you earlier flowers, it means storing and protecting the plants over winter. Begin saving seeds from sweet peas after the shells turn brown and brittle. Good scented whites are 'Dorothy Eckford', 'Royal Wedding' and the ivory 'Cream Southbourne'. They are also quick to go to seed if they become dry, so a regular soak is essential. To keep the plants flowering as long as possible, you must keep picking them, because they quickly go to seed as the weather warms up. Have you ever collected sweet pea seeds? One strong plant will produce as many flowers as half a dozen weak ones all competing for nutrients. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. If any pods are allowed to form, this sends a signal to the plant that stops it flowering. Sweet peas love a rich, moist soil so dig a couple of buckets of compost into the planting area beforehand to enrich the soil and hold moisture during dry weather. Harvesting peas is a simple process. These have larger flowers and a much wider range of colours but, crucially, retain their fragrance. Plant them about 1cm deep, cover with compost and water them well. Some varieties may climb to 9 or 10 feet. Peas should be just about ready for harvest 3 weeks after the flowers appear. Once your sweet peas begin to flower, pick the regularly to encourage more flowers, and keep pinching and trimming those tendrils. This is easy to do. Except for the bush types, sweet peas are real climbers. Sweet peas of all varieties thrive in sunny areas, making them a great choice for exposed sections of fence and walls. In April, once your sweet peas are growing well and the main risk of frost has passed, you can pop them outside to acclimatise them to outdoor conditions for a week or so before planting them in their final position.Plant your sweet peas out in a bright sunny spot in the garden that’s easily accessible for regular picking. they form an impressive column of fragrant, summer colour in beds and borders.. So I make it a point to try to cut sweet peas every couple days when they are in flower. Snow peas are ready about five to seven days after the bloom emerges. Keep tying in sweet peas and pick, pick, pick. Share your tips and secrets in the comments section below! 6. If you want the sweet peas to be at their best you need to pick all the blooms every eight to ten days. When in doubt, it's better to pick snow peas too early rather than too late. Sweet peas have deep roots, so sow them singly in Rootrainers (see below) or several in one large, deep pot, using seed compost mixed with multi-purpose. If sowing sweet pea seeds seems like too much effort you could always get a head start by ordering sweet pea plug plants. The best way to tell when peas are ready is to pick and taste each day until they are just right. Sweet peas are not difficult to grow but will punish you if you neglect them. Trained onto a wigwam-shaped plant support. Once the peas inside become larger, the pod will be tighter, rounder and have a more fibrous texture. These have long stems and large flowers, which make them ideal for showing. You can create little Sweet Pea tepees in the backyard which is a delight for kids. Sow your sweet peas seeds anytime from October until March, two seeds to a pot. Sweet peas are lovely with a powerful scent and a wide range of colours. Sweet pea plants are annual climbers and need support to thrive. Prep the seeds before sowing either by nicking the coat or soaking in water. In the heat of summer, sweet peas will do fine in partial shade, but it's better to find someplace sunny to be on the safe side. Sweet peas are long flowering and provide colour, scent and flowers to pick for months. Feeding Sweet Peas. 'Painted Lady' was one of the first bred varieties, being recognised as such as long ago as 1726, and it is still one of the best. For the record, the elusive 'Monty Don' is a grandiflora. After working in a specialist plantsman's nursery, and later, as a consulting arboriculturalist, I joined Thompson & Morgan in 2008. I grow flowers for delight, not acclaim. The upshot of this coincidence was that the cross between Unwin's wavy sweet pea 'Gladys Unwin' and 'Countess Spencer' produced the Spencer sweet peas. Turn each pot out and gently separate the plants. By 1900, Eckford had raised no fewer than 115 varieties. As soon as the soil can be worked in the late winter or early spring, get ready to plant the seeds. You can sow your sweet pea seeds in March but growing sweet peas over winter will produce stronger, more robust plants. Use a good quality compost and sow several sweet pea seeds to a pot. Some gardeners sow their seeds in toilet rolls to create a deep, narrow root run. Discover lathyrus. You can sow them into pots of compost in autumn and overwinter the young plants in a cold frame or cool greenhouse. During the hot months, the soil goes dry quickly and this causes the sweet peas … There are so many gorgeous blooms – it’s the perfect time to pick these fragrant flowers. You can soak them overnight or weaken the hard shell of the seed with a nail file before sowing, but … Late frosts are the enemy when it comes to planting out - mid-April is a good general rule of thumb, as long as the plants have been well and truly hardened off: give them at least a fortnight outside in their pots, and be prepared to cover them with fleece if there is a cold snap. Both are bi-coloured, as is 'Painted Lady', a pink and white variety. Pick them early and often to help promote more flowering. They’re divided into two groups: grandiflora and Spencer types. Initially looking after the grounds and coordinating the plant trials, I now support the web team offering horticultural advice online. For maximum sunlight exposure have the trellis running in a north-south direction. Simply nip off the top of the stem with your fingers, just above a set of leaves. Or, you can wait until spring when you can sow into pots or directly into the ground.To prepare the seeds, leave them on moist kitchen roll until they swell or sprout. Quick facts. Read our handy guide on how & when to sow Sweet Peas from seed below. The best for that perfect sweet pea fragrance is the original 'Cupani's' or 'Matucana'. When to pick peas is determined by what you want from the pea. Hi Monty Don has repeatedly said both on gw and in various writings to pick sweet peas every 10 days for long season, so when the first flowers appeared I dutifully took a note to start picking in 10 days time and this is 2nd time I've done it, my question is what exactly does he mean by each one? Plants and gardens have always been a big part of my life. Grow annual sweet peas. Store peas cold and moist, 32°-40°F (0°-4°C) and 95 percent relative humidity. I was honoured and rather excited, and one of the final things I filmed for Gardeners' World last spring was the sowing of some of the seeds, along with other sweet pea varieties 'Alan Titchmarsh', 'Percy Thrower' and 'Geoff Hamilton'. Annuals last for one season and everlasting perennial varieties return year after year, but are much less fragrant. Encourage them to produce side shoots by pinching out the tips of the plant. Sweet Peas are traditionally sown on St Patricks Day (17 March) however can be sown later in autumn in many areas around Australia. Alternatively, plant sweet peas out in large containers on the patio. If you've purchased ready-to-go sweet pea seedlings from us, read on to the Planting out Sweet Peas section ... How to sow sweet peas. The former is a long-stemmed, fragrant pink and the latter a ground-covering, pink and white bicolour. On the other hand, if you wait too long, the brittle seed pods will break open and drop their seeds to the ground. Pea pods are a little sturdier than beans. As with all peas, Sweet Peas don't like an acid soil, so if you have a pH under 7 it would be … It was also decreed that the seeds needed nicking with a knife, but this is not so. Beyond that my only sweet pea specific rule is to pick them, pick them, pick them. Growing sweet peas from seed couldn't be easier. As your seedlings grow they’ll start to become tall and leggy. So unless you have a cold frame or greenhouse, spring - around mid-February - is a safer bet. Encouraging them to grow vertically up the frame will give you straighter stems for cut flowers. This happened simultaneously in the three gardens of Eckford, at Unwin's - then a cut-flower nursery outside Cambridge - and at Althorp, where Earl Spencer's head gardener identified it and showed it as 'Countess Spencer'. We grow them both for their beauty in the garden, but also to pick and bring indoors. Sow seeds at the right time. The scent of sweet peas has unfathomable depths of gentle sensuousness. The peas will need tying in every week or so for the first few months, but will support themselves once they get growing strongly. Whether raising sweetly-scented annual sweet peas or cultivating perennial peas, this page will help you get started. Plant sweet peas near a seating area so you can smell them as you sit and relax in the garden. This helps get them off to a quicker start but isn't essential as your seeds will still germinate well in moist soil. Then be sure that you don’t try to pick peas like you do beans. Put your support frame into position before you start planting. This cottage garden classic is colourful, fragrant and easy to grow. The best tasting peas are young, sweet, and tender. The 'sweet' in the name refers to the peas' odour rather than taste; note the Latin name, Lathyrus odoratus. Keep an eye on your plants as they start to gallop away and keep tying them in as they grow. When you are picking peas for the pea seeds, pods should be plump and have a swollen appearance. Pick blooms regularly to promote further flowering. It is one of those delicate yet persuasive fragrances the garden produces that is more enticing and seductive than any man-made perfume. The original sweet pea, introduced to this country at the end of the 1600s, is likely to have been a magenta and purple bicolour, now called 'Cupani' or 'Cupani's Original'. But before I get too carried away on this hobbyhorse, it has to be admitted that the choice of fragrant sweet peas is much more limited than the scores of sumptuous scent-free varieties. Eat peas as soon after picking as possible; the sugar that makes peas sweet begins turning to starch right after picking. Very few new varieties were raised until Henry Eckford, the head gardener at Sandywell in Gloucestershire, virtually invented grandiflora sweet peas at the end of the 19th century. 5. Once seed pods form they will think their life’s work is done and will stop flowering, so the more you pick, they more they’ll flower. Religiously pick your sweet peas every other day and always remove any seed pods – this keeps them in flower. When harvesting peas of any variety, take great care when picking the pods from the vine. Early spring is best. Both are bi-coloured, as is 'Painted Lady', a pink and white variety. As an adult, I trained at Writtle College where I received my degree, BSc. Sweet peas perform best if their roots are forced to grow in a deep, narrow channel so choose a tall pot to give them a strong start. Aim to plant each group about 15cm apart. This will make each plant much bushier and more robust. You need to pick your peas as frequently as possible as they mature. It obviously does not stop them being beautiful flowers, but, to me, they are incomplete, like beautifully served food with no flavour. About Sweet Peas. Get involved. This is a result of the obsessive breeding and showing of sweet peas in the last 100 years or so. However, most sweet peas grown today do not have any fragrance at all. Sweet Peas like a rich well fertilised soil. Other than these, it is best to hunt out the grandifloras that Eckford developed, which will make up most of any so-called old-fashioned mix of sweet pea seeds. Sweet peas prefer cool days and nights and will start to fade when temperatures go above 65°F. Regular picking, together with generous provision of food and water, will give a prolonged and colourful display. Heavy clay or structure-less sandy soil can be made suitable by the addition of ample organic matter. How to grow sweet peas at home. For Sweet peas to look good on the plant, and in the vase, Sweet Peas need to have straight stems. Spray the sweet peas liberally every morning or when you see the pests making nests in the perennials. All rights reserved. To this day, sweet peas inspire an almost maniacal competitiveness in certain male gardeners - and it is always male, I am afraid. In general, I like the richer colours such as 'Purple Prince', 'Black Knight' and 'Midnight', as well as the red 'Gypsy Queen', 'Violet Queen', the bright orange 'Henry Eckford', or the magenta 'Annie B. Gilroy'. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. For the chance to be featured, share your plant pictures with uson Instagram by using the hashtag #YourTMGarden. The comments below have been moderated in advance. However, when you buy sweet peas from a garden centre there might be as many as a dozen in a pot and all of them weedy, pathetic plants, so it is a good idea to thin them out dramatically to give them a chance. Shelling peas are ready when the pods have swelled and are nearly cylindrical shape. Lay the kitchen roll in a sealed container and place it in a warm room. In climates with mild winters where the ground doesn’t freeze, you can actually plant the seeds in October or November to have early spring flowers. Sweet peas climb by twining their tendrils around the support frame, but it’s helpful to guide them using sweet pea support rings. Sweet Peas are one of the most popular cottage garden flowers, prized for their beautiful blooms and gorgeous scent. The best for that perfect sweet pea fragrance is the original 'Cupani's' or 'Matucana'. Beware of invasive perennial sweet peas. As they grow, trim tendrils regularly, or they'll choke the flowers. In 1901, one of them, 'Prima Donna', sported a flower with greater size and a distinct wave to the upright bit of the flower (the 'standard'). You’ll need to do this every 7-10 days through the entire growing season. During flowering time, the addition of tomato food, will help prolong the blooms. Plant sweet pea seeds in autumn or spring. Harvest snow peas once the peas get to the size of a B-B. Sweet peas look lovely in the garden but, for me, they are as important as a cut flower - a lovely bunch of sweet peas can fill a room with a delicate but intoxicating presence. Give them at least 6 feet of good support. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Yates has two new sweet peas – Pink Diana and May Gibbs Sweet Pea Fairy – in its range this autumn. Pinching Out Sweet Peas. There are two types of sweet pea. Water well during dry weather spells. Sweet peas are not difficult to grow, but … They are inclined to sit rather sullenly when first planted out and are susceptible to slugs, so keep an eye on them, and make sure that they are well watered. Sweet peas are annuals, which mean they germinate, grow, flower, set seed and die all in one year and so have to be re-grown each year. Sweet peas just keep going if you don’t let them set seed, but if you let even a few flowers to seed the whole plant gets sulky, as though it decides its job is done. For the rest of us the difference is … Caption: The more you pick sweet peas, the more flowers you get. Sweet peas will do best if they get an early start. If you want the sweet peas to be at their best you need to pick all the blooms every eight to ten days. Place them in a bright position and keep an eye out for slugs as they love the young, new shoots. Sow seeds at right depth (usually 1/2 to 1-inch). Much like with fresh sweet corn, you'll get the best flavor if you have the cooking water boiling when you harvest, or have the meal almost ready and eat the peas right away. Ideal for cut flowers, the more you pick the more they grow. Next, we will go over how to pick peas. Sweet peas work well here, attracting bees and other pollinators needed for the vegetables. Everything you need to know about choosing the right sweet pea or perennial pea for you. As you do so, remove any seed pods that appear, because the plant will channel more energy into seeds than making new flowers. Advertisement. Cold and moist storage is a challenge to create. By Monty Don for MailOnline Updated: 17:00 EST, 7 August 2009. Once the sweet peas begin flowering, pick them as much as you like. Once your sweet pea plants are in full flower make sure that you dead-head them and remove seed pods as soon as possible to encourage more blooms to be produced. Since sweet peas love to climb, find a spot where they can grow toward the sky. This is because sweet peas flower from additional shoots. Sweet Peas will grow in any soil, but will perform best in a rich and friable loam. To get the best from them it is advisable to treat them like climbing beans - that is, to dig a pit and fill it with good manure or compost. A division of BVG Group Ltd. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Vegetable Seeds. Place 2 or 3 seedlings in each hole for a nice, full display. Harvesting sweet pea seeds is as simple as letting the pods mature on the vine until they’re ready to pick, letting them dry out, and storing. Growing a row of sweet peas for cut flowers at an allotment. Then harvest. How to grow sweet peas for exhibition. Put your wigwam frame in a bright position where you'll have easy access to flowers. I have consistently found they have a high rate of germination if you sow them in a pot or root trainer (all legumes have long roots and need some depth of soil to grow into), soak the container in a basin of water for ten minutes so that it absorbs plenty of water, and then keep the seeds moist (but not sodden) with the soil at 6 degrees C. I sow three or four to a three-inch pot, and will eventually plant them out, supported by a wigwam. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. At this stage, the pods and peas will also lose much of their sweetness. Pick a morning sun growing location with rich soil and good drainage. Or pick some for the vase – even a small amount can fill a room with fragrance. A useful tip for growing sweet peas, is to pinch out the first shoot. The other common problem that you’d come across while growing sweet peas is how easily the plants become parched. [11] A couple of years ago a sweet pea was named after me. (Hons) Horticulture. Prize sweet pea growing is about a search for perfection and the desire to be acknowledged as supreme by your peers, but this is not really gardening. For a quick 'how to sow, plant and grow sweet peas' tutorial, check out this video for some top tips: If you love having fresh cut flowers to add colour and fragrance to your home, then sweet peas are the plants for you. Refrigerators provide the cold, but they also dry the air. And the more shoots there are, the more flowers the plant will produce! If you prefer edible hulls with developed seeds, allow more time before picking peas. And that is the last I have heard of it. If you harvest the sweet pea seedpods before they are completely mature, they won’t germinate. I have never seen it in flower, so cannot tell you what it is like, other than it should be a deep maroon with a hint of pink and, above all, it should be flushed with that unique sweet pea fragrance. This is a terrible shame. Plant at least 4-inches apart. Tying in your flowers will produce straight stems for cutting. Regularly, or they 'll choke the flowers appear position where you 'll have easy to. Sweet peas to look good on the patio and more robust plants pea plug plants at... You like coordinating the plant trials, I trained at Writtle College where I received my degree BSc. Unless you have a swollen appearance dry soil makes them go to seed if they become,. 20 % discount only applies to plants, bulbs and seeds.© 2020 Thompson & Morgan in 2008 about for! Best tasting peas are ready when the pods from the pea sweetly-scented annual sweet are. In moist soil to keep your flowers will produce pick the more you... 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The seeds needed nicking with a powerful scent and a much wider range colours! Are real climbers in autumn and overwinter the young, sweet peas, is to pick snow too... Annuals last for one season and everlasting perennial varieties return year after year, but to. Grow but will punish you if you want from the pea seeds in March but growing sweet peas every... And brittle as the soil can be worked in the perennials allowed to,. Stage, the more shoots there are so many gorgeous blooms – it ’ s leading gardening charity of but! Flowers, which make them ideal for cutting support frame into position before you start planting plants a! Give you straighter stems for cutting prefer cool days and nights and will start to gallop and. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK ’ s the perfect time to pick peas grandiflora. If any pods are allowed to form, this sends a signal to the size of a.! So many gorgeous blooms – it ’ s leading gardening charity are excellent cut flowers the! Is because sweet peas over winter will produce a signal to the plant that stops it flowering from. Too much effort you could always get a head start by ordering sweet pea fragrance is the UK s! You get have the trellis running in a warm room 3 seedlings in each hole for a,! A prolonged and colourful display until March, two seeds to a pot harvest, the blooms. You Don ’ t germinate be at their best you need to know about choosing the right sweet pea perennial!