Beautiful sweet peas
It’s a pretty miserable day here with frequent heavy showers, looming dark clouds that mean I have to put the light on and it felt raw when I made the quick dash to put out the recycling bin . I often feel frustrated at this time of year, raring to go but hindered by the weather and knowing if I jump the gun the plants will only suffer. However, to cheer myself up I decided to sow the first seeds of 2012 and it was Sweet peas that had the honour. Sweet peas are hardy so you can sow them anytime between late October and April for a bountiful crop that summer. I have sown them at a variety of times before but have never had much success with sowing them in late autumn. Although they are hardy they do need some protection over winter and I have found that they succumb to the damp. Late winter and early spring sowings do very well from my experience and so I don’t bother sowing them any earlier.
Use clematis pots or similar to grow your sweet peas
The benefit of sowing Sweet peas earlier is that they establish a deep root system that helps the plants cope with any dry spells and they are much less prone to mildew. I don’t like to sow my sweet peas directly into the ground though. The soil will probably be cold and wet, possibly frozen or covered in snow. They are also at most risk from being nobbled by slugs or mice at this early stage. Instead I sow mine indoors into really tall pots such as the pots in which Clematis are planted. You can buy root-trainers but I find these a bit fiddly. I’ve also tried sowing into loo rolls but they do get really mouldy fairly quickly and start to smell. It’s not very appealing cultivating all that mould growth on my kitchen windowsill. None of these give the plants a really long root run either. I sow 5-6 seeds per pot and they can stay in these pots until I plant them out into the soil. I don’t bother soaking or chitting my Sweet peas and I haven’t had any problems with germination. Today I sowed 2 varieties – ‘Mrs. Collier’, a highly fragrant white variety and ‘Just Jenny’ a dark midnight purpley-blue with a good scent.
I filled the pots with compost at the weekend and then put the pots in the kitchen next to a radiator. I know this might sound weird but last year when I went to sow my seeds I discovered that the compost had been frozen. It was so cold that no seed would have been encouraged to germinate in it. Even with the mild winter we’ve had so far my compost has been sat in the shed and felt quite cold when I filled the pots. I always use tepid water when watering my compost. If I was a seed I wouldn’t be happy sat in cold, wet compost. And that’s it, for now. These will go into a coldframe some time in March when I will sow another batch so I have a good supply of flowers right through the summer.
wellywoman 
I’m so glad I found your blog WW, its like having my own personal reminder of what I should be doing! Yes,I have some long clematis pots so I’ve no excuse not to get on with it, then can keep them in the conservatory which is kept frost free.Sowed my meconopsis seeds yesterday, so now am praying for a frost to kick start them!!
Pauline, what kind of Meconopsis? I’m trying Meconopsis cambrica for the second time this year and hoping I’ll be successful this year.
Hi Pauline, I love Meconopsis. The blue is incredible. I had heard they were difficult to grow though. Is it true?
It’s a small world in some ways! I just sowed sweet peas last night too. I’m experimenting with winter sowing them in milk jugs, but your post makes me wonder if I’ve made the wrong choice there. I’ll see how they do.
I adore sweet peas and grow masses of them – what could be nicer on a summers’ day than to wander along rows of sweet peas picking and sniffing. A good reminder for getting them started.
Hi Elaine, Sweet peas are definitely one of my favourite flowers. Nothing matches them for scent. It’s a shame the flowers don’t last longer when picked but they produce so many this isn’t really a problem.
OF COURSE I need to sow some sweet peas soon!!! I love to have them scattered all over the garden, climbing fences and bushes and trellises! I am fortunate enough to have some perennial sweet peas (which have less scent but come back every year!), but I also gathered seeds from the annuals I sowed last year and will definitely be buying more seed.
WW, I also tried starting the Sweet peas in Winter and like yourself found that it was pointless. It is a few years since we had them in the garden. Myra just loves Sweet peas, I will have to find a position so we can have them again. Thanks for your views on my current post, I really appreciate you taking the time.
I mustn’t miss the boat sowing some sweetpeas this year, I was without them last year and really missed them.
Wow. I went over a number of your past postings, and you sure have lots of interesting information. Glad I found your blog. Good stuff. I always enjoy learning from gardeners around the world. You have much to offer. I live here on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin USA so life is a little different. I try to include the lake as a background in many of my postings. It really is the star of the show. If you want to seen the gardens my blog is: gardensatwaterseast.blogspot.com and not the one that often comes up when I post comments on blogs. So check out the Gardens at Waters East to see life here. Hope to see you soon. Jack
Hi WW, thanks for timely reminder and good soil warming advice. Will bring soil inside before I trot off to work, so I can sow in warmer soil when I get home.
p.s. With regards to your last post, abandoned former lives to become a gardener a few years ago now. Not earning huge amounts, but never been happier!
Good tip re soil warming, makes perfect sense, as does sowing them in clematis pots, will have to try it, but not this year, no room to grow indoors, so will have to wait until it is warm enough in the greenhouse.
Good thinking, thanks for the reminder, I must start sowing mine. I hope to have a big row of them at my allotment this year. I’ve got a few varieties that I plan to sow, ‘Our Harry’, Just Jenny’ and ‘Charlies Angel’, all different shades of blue. Plus I love ‘Matucana’ for its scent. I also tried sowing late autumn/early winter last year and wasn’t successful but sowing late winter and early spring was good so I’m just sticking to that now too.
I sow my seeds direct, usually in late April once the ground has warmed up. Last year they took a long time to get going and flowered very late.
They really are a must grow flower for the garden and/or plot, and the one flower that I cut and bring home. xx
I tend to sow my seeds directly into the soil once it has heated up. But i have had enough space for them in the past couple of years. I might try them in clematis pots this year and worry about space later.
They are some gorgeous colours and they make such a great cut flower.
I am planning my seed sowing for next month, and I want to plant some peas. I usually plant them directly in the garden bed, but maybe I could get ahead by planting them in pots. I like your blog, and so I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award in my last post. Enjoy!
I met a couple of my garden club friends for lunch on Friday and funnily enough one of the topics we chatted about was sowing sweet peas. Wish that I had read your post sooner so I could have passed on the excellent tip about using a clematis pot to sow them in. I use any I come across for my special snowdrops but I’m sure that I might be able to find some spares. I sowed some sweet peas in November but will make another sowing soon. My autumn sown ones sometimes get rather straggly. An absolute must for me at the allotment.
Hi. I just found your blog and have read through the first few posts and I am now a follower 🙂
You may have tempted me to start growing sweet peas. I am very very new to growing anything, and have just started my own blog about working my way up to owning a smallholding (well thats the plan)
Oooh, I wonder if you could help me, as I said I haven’t planted anything until the other day, im very interested in growing fruit. I have had a look around garden centres and they are quite expensive, (fruit trees) but I found in Wilkinson they are more fairly priced.
I was thinking of getting raspberry plant and maybe similar ones, if I got a big pot and planted it this time of year do you think it would be ok (i would take it inside if there were any frosts). They also had kiwi, and lemon trees on sale? I didn’t know you could grow that sort of fruit in this country? Anyway, any insight into these things would be great, looking forward to more posts from you!
Hi Chicken a top a pig, I would wait another couple of weeks before you buy any raspberries. You will normally find these as canes which basically look like dead twigs but once planted and when the weather warms up these canes will sprout. Raspberries aren’t great for permanent planting in pots though because they have shallow roots which spread quite far and deep tap roots which bury down deeply. Lemon trees would need to be brought indoors over winter for protection and kiwis I think need quite a sheltered, sunny spot and can get quite big. If you can plant into soil I think you are best growing raspberries, strawberries, maybe some currants and maybe a hybrid blackberry. Have a look at some of the specialist fruit growing companies such as Pomona, Ken Muir they give good advice and have lovely catalogues to look through. The RHS website is an excellent source of any fruit and veg growing information. Hope this is of some help.
I like to know how other people do their seed sowing. Like you, I abandoned toilet roll inners last year because of the mould. They don’t seem to break down easily in the soil either. Love your idea of early sowings in deep pots and will give it a go. I counted my sweet pea seeds yesterday – 150 seeds! Growing Hunters Moon, Beaujolais, Air Warden, Blue Velvet and Swan Lake. (Hopefully. If I can get enough wigwams built!)
I love sweet peas and grow loads but haven’t sown any yet. Maybe I should get on with it! I get my seeds from Sarah Raven too and they have good germination rates. Love your list of what you have. I haven’t finalised mine yet!