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Sweet Pea Flowers
Sweet pea flowers are one of the wonderful things that grace my desk from mid-summer until frost. I love these fragrant blooms and generally have a coffee cup full of them handy. (I note two things about the coffee cup – first vases are more tippy and second, I’m a guy – what do you expect?)
Sweet peas are sown first thing in the spring just as soon as the ground is workable. They do germinate in warmer soil but they seem to flower better if planted earlier. Sow seeds approximately one-half inch deep (not much deeper) and approximately 4-6 inches apart. You can space the plants a little further apart but this is not necessary.
Sweet pea flowers really like full sunlight although they will grow in a part shade garden. The less sunlight you give them – the more spindly will be the vines and the flowers will come later in the season. So a little shade is fine but a few hours of shade will slow down the plant so it won’t bloom at all.
Sweet pea flowers can be left to sprawl but I prefer to stake them upright. This way, the flowers are easier to find and harvest. The absolute easiest way to stake them is to lay some old Christmas tree branches down on the ground right over top of the newly planted seeds. The needles will have fallen off the branches so the seeds are not shaded. And the pile of branches provides a support for the vines to grow up. In the fall, discard the branches and the dead vines. Alternately, you can grow them as climbing vines up trellis or fencing. Click here for free newsletteror to ask about sweet pea flowers
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