Help with sweet peas, please

[dovehouse]

My son is getting married in Suffolk in August and his fiancée is hoping to have sweet peas everywhere. We are going to try to grow them ourselves, but are slightly worried, having read the desperate pleas of another bride-to-be in an earlier forum, who was very unsuccessful with her attempts. I would be very grateful if anyone could give any help with the best way to grow sweet peas. If all else fails, we would also welcome suggestions about where we could buy or beg some for their special day.

[snuffer]

I can't claim to be an expert. Grew sweetpeas from seed for the first time this year. If it is of any help here's what I did. Some people sow about now but I sowed in spring and had plenty of flowers by middle of July.

Soak seeds overnight before sowing to soften seed case. Sow into peat pots or bathroom tissue tubes (two to a pot and thin out to stongest seedling). Place in greenhouse or somewhere warm and light. Keep moist but don't over water. When seedlings are between four and six inches high pinch of top two sets of leaves. (I know that sounds counter intuitive but it increases the number of blooms). When plants are sturdy and weather permits plant out to grow up supports, keep tying in as they grow. Look forward to plenty of lovely sweet scented flowers.

Hope that made sense. Good luck and best wishes to the happy couple.

It may be worth you posting a similar request in 'The Flower Mill' forum. Someone better informed than me might pick up your thread.

[dovehouse]

Help with sweet peas, please

Thank you so much for this helpful advice. I am feeling more confident already. Fingers crossed!

[elizajay]

After you have pinched off the top leaves, do you continue to pinch out until they are ready to plant out, or how do you stop them from getting leggy?

[rustylady]

My son is getting married in Suffolk in August and his fiancée is hoping to have sweet peas everywhere. We are going to try to grow them ourselves, but are slightly worried, having read the desperate pleas of another bride-to-be in an earlier forum, who was very unsuccessful with her attempts. I would be very grateful if anyone could give any help with the best way to grow sweet peas. If all else fails, we would also welcome suggestions about where we could buy or beg some for their special day.

Hi Dovehouse, I see your son is getting married in Suffolk - where do you live/garden? It would help if you add your location to your profile - county would do fine. Advice already given re growing is good, but transport may be a problem if you live far away. I do know that sweet peas as cut flowers are freely available in Beccles during Summer, but obviously I don't know if you or son are anywhere near (Suffolk is quite a big county)

[dovehouse]

Hi Rustylady, We live near Eye so Beccles isn't too far away and the wedding will be near Hadleigh. Are the flowers in Beccles sold at a market? I am so grateful for all the kind and helpful replies that I have had so far.

[andrewo]

To get any decent crop from sweetpeas is down to weather, many growers and showers now do it undercover in polytunnels. That way they are not subject to weather, choose a sheltered spot if growing them outside, any heavy wind will burn the flowers and leaves. Also, it depends when in August, my sweetpeas didn't really start to flower heavily until August - so get them started now and get some undercover and in the garden to hedge your bets. Ever thought of lavender? We used plants for our wedding.

[Two_Sheds]

I find good sweetpeas really difficult to grow, because I can't be bothered with all that cordoning and stuff.
Grown up a teepee, they flower fine for a couple of weeks, then the stems get shorter and shorter (2 inches!) and then the whole plant succumbs to powdery mildew.

If you are determined to have sweet peas (for the scent) I would suggest padding out your bouquet with something pretty & more reliable to grow ... like scabious (red, black, white, pink, purple ...)

[womble]

Two sheds, I always have the same problems, I've only been growing them for a couple of years though.
Last year, quite by chance, I tried planting a tomato in a upside down bucket and just bunged a few sweetpea seeds in the top. The tomato did nothoing special and I pulled it out, but the sweetpeas loved it and I had a huge display of flowers and leaves. There was like this huge wave of sweetpeas.
I'm definately doing it again next year... but without the tomato this time

It does have to be watered alot though, even with the water crystals added, it eventually died when I was working away and my good wife forgot to water it. And my melon