Autumn sowing of sweet peas

[Dottie]

Last night I read sweetpeas "ideally they are sown in autunm to give them plenty of time to get going so that the floweres arrive good and early the following summer".

So if I start some off now, can I leave them outside over winter or would they have to be brought indoors? I don't have the space indoors and makes the place too untidy, it's bad enough coping with the mess in spring.

I don't have a greenhouse, but have a shed with a window. I realise that the shed would not be warm enough, but what if put the loo rolls into a large polystyrene box and put a plastic propagator lid on top, would that do?

I'm hoping to directly sow lots of flower seeds this autumn into beds, treating as a cover crop, with the benefit of having early flowers blooming next year.

[Two_Sheds]

You don't want to start them before mid-Oct.
have a look here: Sweet Pea growing calendar with pictures

[Dottie]

Thanks, the growing calendar is excellent.

[Alice]

Well Dottie, I'm no expert, but I do grow sweet peas every year.
As I see it, unless you are growing for showing, or are determined to have the first sweet pea in the neighbourhood, I see no pont in autumn sowing. It's just a load of work you don't need. Sweet peas sown in the spring get on fine. They might be a few weeks behind autumn sowings, I don't know, but does it matter. It's up to you.

[chengjing]

Dottie, I was thinking about the same thing. I know you can start some hardy annuals in autumn and they manage survive outside overwinter. Maybe it is worth trying to see if they can survive outside?

[Gardenwitch]

Oh handy to know i think i'll give this a go and overwinter them in my greenhouse

[basketcase]

Dottie, I was thinking about the same thing. I know you can start some hardy annuals in autumn and they manage survive outside overwinter. Maybe it is worth trying to see if they can survive outside?

Or plant half in autumn and half in spring as an experiment and/or for a longer 'season'. Actually, that sounds like a plan...

[Dottie]

I'm going to try autumn sowing quite a few different flowers this year, some straight into beds (Poppy, cornflowers, and pot marigolds, which I also have flowering at the mo) and others like sweet peas in pots. The idea is do an autumn and spring sowing, unless the autumn sowing is so successful that I can concentrate all my efforts on spring crop sowing.

Sweet peas I shall do all in pots, but will then transfer some of the pots direct into a bed and some on the window shelf in the shed.

Next spring I'm going to be sowing a whole range of different flowers: Dahlia, Sunflowers and the list goes on.

However as I type I'm thinking that if I manage to have another raised bed built in the next few weeks, it's going to be taller than other beds (just because of the unit I'm recycling/adapting is taller), this could be used as a cold frame in the short term. Hopefully still filling it with some leaf mulch, but then sit some seed trays on the mulch and pop on a sheet of perspex. However the bed construction and digging up of the leaf mulch is all down to the availability of my little helpers, so I still need to have ideas of getting results from just my pottering efforts.

It's fair to say as I'm limited these days by how much I can physically do, it means I have more time to plan. So even if I'm not doing as much as I would like, it makes me feel good to know that I have plans for continual growth.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Jalnald]

I have some pods from a friends' sweet peas. What do I need to do for them to produce palnts and flowers next year. The seeds are still in the pods.

[Dottie]

Just de-pod the seeds and follow the instructions from the link above that TwoSheds provided - Sweet Pea Growing Calendar.

[Jalnald]

Thanks I will give them a try.