How to Grow Sweet Peas & Growing Sweet Peas , Part two

How to Grow Sweet Peas, 2009 – Part Two

Click this link for Part One – Instructions How to Grow

Before we moved house I had planted some sweet pea seeds in to trays and they were, at the time of the move, about three inches high. Last year I had a problem with too many rows of sweet peas being planted and them becoming a tangled mess as the summer went on so this year I only planted two rows. And this – picture above – is how they are doing. They have grown up the wall and the fence so brilliantly and are starting to look like the ‘Wall of Sweet Peas ‘ that I had imagined when they went in to the ground.

I will definitely plant them there again next year but I have decided to put in three or maybe even four well spaced rows. I shall search out the tallest variety I can find as I feel that the barrier of sweet peas I am after is yet to be fully obtained. The trick will be in keeping them entwined against the wall and the fence and not each other but I think it’s worth it. To be honest they are very low maintenance.

How to grow sweet peas 2 - July 09 - Cherry Menlove

Of course within a few days of the flowers coming out they need to be picked or the seed pods will form and they won’t continue to flower. So yesterday I went outside and picked a huge amount of flowers and brought them inside.

*A tip for ya!*

If you cut sweet peas from your garden and gather them in a trug or basket then PLEASE lay them all the same way. It’s a pain in a place to have them lying in different directions and then have to untangle them before they even reach the jug.

How to grow sweet peas 3 - July 09 - Cherry Menlove

My first cutting filled three jugs full of flowers and here is one of them sitting in the living room on some books. The flowers are at the end of the room and they seem to reach out and grab your face like an Italian mama as you enter the room.

They don’t last long but they give you their all while they sit there. They are strong and vibrant while growing in the ground and have the tenacity of bindweed as they reach for the heady heights of the top of the wall or willow wigwam. But as soon as they are cut, gathered up and placed together in a jug they are on their way out. This isn’t written to make anybody feel like it’s not worth growing them because the plant outside will continue to produce. It is written to urge you to grab the chance of having sweet peas in your home with both hands and hold tightly. To revel in their lack of symmetry (and I LOVE symmetry), breathe in their scent and promise yourself, as I have, to plant even more next year.