Growing sweet peas from seed

What about Sweet Peas???

We love them…..do you? The quintessential romantic cottage flower sweet peas are members of the legume family, which includes peas and beans.

We buy our seeds mail order from Roger Parsons in Chichester.

• Sweet peas favour a long root run, and we find sowing in Haxnicks rootrainers produces great results. Plastic we know, but Vanessa has had hers for over 20 years and they are still going strong. Each pack contains 32 individual cells and we sow 2 sweet pea seeds in each.

• Alternatively give toilet roll tubes in a supermarket fruit container a try.Keep an eye on them as mice love them!

• When there are two or more pairs of leaves pinch out the growing tip back to these leaves to encourage side shoots.

• Plant out into well composted soil as soon as the roots appear at the container base to ensure consistent growth. Don’t worry if it’s a bit wintry sweet peas are hardier than you might think.

• They will need a bit of encouragement to get climbing. Once they get away and start developing their tendrils they will be self-supporting and should start blooming about 12 weeks after sowing. If successful, you will be able to see our cutting patch at the next Hidden Gardens of Grayshott on 28/29th May 2023! In the meantime, we very much look forward to hearing from all of you on what you’re gardening this Spring.