SWEET PEAS
English gardeners call sweet peas "the Queen of Annuals." These charming annuals are unique among
garden flowers with their vivid colours, fragrance, and length of bloom in the garden. The flowers have an
air of romance about them in both their scent and appearance. The ruffled blooms look like little butterflies
all aflutter. Sweet pea blooms are long lasting and have one of the widest colour ranges in the plant
kingdom, including crimson reds, navy blues, pastel lavenders, pinks, and the purest whites.
Sweet peas can adapt to any garden style. The loose, billowing form of bush varieties makes them a
natural in a cottage garden. And the climbing varieties take on a formal or casual look when they are
growing up a support.
HABIT
Plant habit can be climbing; tendrils wind around a support and can grow 6 to 10 feet depending upon the
growing conditions and cultivar. The plant habit can be compact reaching only 8 to 24 inches tall and
needing no support. Avid gardeners select the site first, and then determine the best variety with the
desired habit for that site or container. Dwarf, or bush sweet peas are ideally suited for container growth
while the climbing varieties will grow best in the open ground.
Many plants initiate buds or flowers under certain day length. These are called short day or long day
flowering plants. Most sweet pea cultivars need lengthening days to initiate buds and bloom.
Sweet peas are one of the easiest flowering annuals to start from seed, best sown directly in the garden.
Give them a site with full to partial sun and deep, rich, loamy, moist but well-drained soil. Add plenty of
organic matter (compost, well-rotted manure, leaf mould, or humus) to enrich the soil and make it more
friable.
Sweet peas can be sown from March until June in the Western Cape
Tips for Sweet Peas from our General Manager at Starke Ayres Garden Centre Rosebank, Mr. Richard
Morris:
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Preparing a deep well drained trench at least 50cm deep with generous supply of compost and
200g Sterilized Bone meal per meter sq. and Organic 315,
MOST IMPORTANT my best sweet peas have been grown when I mix in Dolomitic lime (A
cupful / handful per linear meter with above) as they love alkaline well-draining rich humid
well fertilized soil,
Leaving above to stand and ONLY PLANT in mid-April in Western Cape
Sweet Peas love sun so choose a sunny spot
I always plant my seed for the taller Multiflora Cultivars 12 / 15 cm apart so that they are not
competing with each other and then I interplant between these seed 14 days after I have
planted the first (Don’t tell anyone but you can prolong flowering by 45 days well into
October.)
This is one plant that “The more you pick the bloom / pinch the more flowers you get so we
love having them in little vases in bedrooms and entrance and kitchen for their excellent
fragrance and beautiful coloured blooms”
I always feed Kelpak for the first month, once weekly to get a strong healthy framework on
which my blooms are borne.
Don’t forget the Dwarf Bijou mixes that anyone can plant in a tub or container.
SOWING SWEET PEAS
Before you sow them you can soak your sweet pea seeds in tepid water to rehydrate them. It helps them
get off to a quicker start but it isn’t essential as they will still germinate well in moist compost. If you soak
them overnight you will notice that they swell up and turn a lovely chestnut colour. Use a good quality
compost and sow several sweet pea seeds to a pot.
Sow them about 1cm deep, cover the seed with compost and water them well. If sowing Sweet Pea seed
seems like too much effort you could always buy sweet peas as plug plants. Place them in a bright position
and when the shoots appear keep an eye out for slugs as they love young sweet pea shoots.
PINCHING OUT SWEET PEA SHOOTS
As the seedlings grow they will start to become tall and leggy. You can encourage them to produce side
shoots by pinching out the tips of the sweet peas. Simply nip off the top of the stem just above a set of
leaves. This will make each plant much bushier and more robust. And the more shoots there are, the more
flowers will be produced!
HOW TO GROW FROM PURCHASED PLANTS
You may find sweet peas sold as plants particularly at some specialty nurseries or garden centres. There
may be ready-made container plantings of sweet peas—an instant garden. Sweet peas need tender care
when transplanted, so look for plants in individual earth friendly pots or peat pots. The larger the pot, the
better. Right before planting, snip off any flowers or flower buds. This is the time to get the roots well
established so they can support the growing plant’s needs. Even though you sacrifice early blooms, you’ll
be rewarded with bigger plants with an abundance of larger flowers.
Plant into prepared garden soil or a container. With transplants, it’s even more important to plant the
support before digging the plant in to keep the precious roots out of harm’s way. Try to keep the root ball
together. Plant it at the same depth as it was originally growing. Lightly firm the soil around it and water.
Wait a week to ten days before mulching. Be sure to keep the mulch at least an inch away from the stem of
the plant until plants are well established. Otherwise you could smother the stem or be likely to encourage
insects, pests, and diseases.
TRANSPLANTING SWEET PEA PLANTS
Plant your sweet peas out in a bright sunny spot in the garden that is easily accessible so that you can get to the plants
to pick the flowers. 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 the moisture during dry weather. Alternatively you can plant sweet peas out in
large containers on the patio. Sweet peas are climbers and will need a suitable support to grow up. Put your plant
support frame into position before you start planting sweet peas. Turn each pot out and gently separate the plants. You
can plant 2 or 3 seedlings in each planting hole for a nice, full display. Aim to plant each group about 15cm apart.
TYING IN SWEET PEA STEMS
Sweet peas climb by twining their tendrils around the sweet pea support frame, but it is helpful to guide
them onto the support using sweet pea support rings.
Throughout the season you will need to keep them well watered, as dry soil will make them go to seed
quicker. Make sure that you remove any faded sweet pea flowers or seedpods as soon as possible to
encourage more blooms to be produced.
Don’t forget that the more that you cut, the more sweet peas flowers you will get so you can enjoy that
fabulous sweet pea perfume in your home too.
PRUNING SWEET PEA PLANTS
Once your sweet pea plants are in full flower you should regularly dead-head them to encourage more
flowers to develop. Simply snip off any faded blooms or seed pods when you see them.
If you love having fresh cut flowers in your home, then sweet peas are the plants for you! They are ideal for
cutting as the more blooms you cut the more they grow.
GARDEN CARE
Do not over fertilize or you’ll wind up with very deep green leaves but few flowers. A slow release fertilizer
blended into the soil at planting time works fine for the initial plant development. Organic fertilizers like
Talborne Organic or a slow release chemically balanced 2.3.2 are also excellent for sweet peas. After first
month in gravel or container, feed with Starke Ayres 3.1.5 or Talborne Organic slow release 3.1.5 fertilizer.
This has high nitrogen to ensure further foliage development but most importantly it also has high
potassium which is essential in production of blossoms and flowers.
If blooms are not cut regularly, deadhead the plant as soon as flowers fade. Allowing the plant to produce
seedpods will reduce overall flower production. Removing spent blooms will ensure more blooms.
POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
The first challenge for sweet peas, like other direct-sown seeds, is to avoid being plucked out of the ground
by voracious birds, mice, squirrels, and other critters. As seedlings, sweet peas are vulnerable to birds,
slugs, and snails.
Preventative measures often deter a problem before it has a chance to get started. Plant sweet peas in an
area that gets good air circulation. Water early in the day so the leaves are dry by nightfall; wet leaves are a
magnet for fungus. Think of sweet peas like food crops. Rotate planting areas so that the sweet peas are
grown in the same space once every four years. Don’t grow sweet peas where other legumes are growing
or grew last year. Legumes include garden peas, beans of all types, peanuts, and clover.
BRING THE OUTDOORS IN – CUT FLOWERS
When the first flowers appear, start cutting flowering stems for indoor bouquets. In addition to adding the
sweet perfume in the house, you’re encouraging the plant to produce more flowers. Cut stems every other
day, early in the morning when they are the freshest. For climbing varieties, thinning lateral shoots that
start at the base of leaves will reduce vegetative growth, increase flower production, and encourage better
air circulation around the plant.
The stems will look full when you first arrange them and the remaining buds will open as the first blooms
fade. Be sure to remove any leaves that are below water level in the vase. A bouquet of sweet peas can
easily last a week indoors if you cut off 1/2 cm at the base of each stem and change the water daily.
FRAGRANCE
There is a great deal of variation in the fragrance and intensity of smell in sweet peas. Since the odour that
our noses detect is from a complex combination of volatile chemicals produced within the flowers, the
strength of fragrance of a sweet pea variety can change due to a number of factors, such as rain, high
temperatures, time of day and the age of the flower.
HISTORY
Interestingly, the origin of the sweet pea in the wild has been greatly disputed. The first written record
appeared in 1695 in Sicily.
NOMENCLATURE
The moniker, "sweet pea," was supposedly first used by the poet Keats in the early 1800s. Both English and
North Americans use the common name, "sweet pea."
This text has focused on Lathyrus odoratus, common name sweet pea, but within the genus Lathyrus,
there are 110 species and innumerable cultivars. In broad terms, the genus is commonly known as vetchling
or wild pea. It is in the Leguminosae (a.k.a. Fabaceae) or Legume family. Other legumes include garden
peas, acacia, beans, mimosa, soybeans, wisteria, and clover.
With the growing interest in edible flowers, it is very important to be specific with the name. Although
garden peas, (Pisumsativum) such as English peas, edible podded peas and snow peas are edible, sweet
peas (Lathyrusodoratus) are poisonous—especially the flowers and seeds.
Read more:http://chestofbooks.com/gardening-horticulture/Sweet-Peas-Antirrhinums/Part-1-Chapter-1The-History-Of-Growing-Sweet-Peas.html#.VR0GFfmUdzt#ixzz3W8oV1Alu