This article is all gonna be about sweet pea, so if you are a person that wants to find out more about pea or you are a person who never grown sweet peas or even if you are a person that never heard of pea just stay and keep reading.

In fact sweet pea is also called Lathyrus odoratus and it is a flower that can be found at home, cutting garden, border garden, woodland, twining on the trellis.

Sowing sweet pea seeds

It is a good idea that 24 hours before sowing seeds or just soaking those seeds overnight is to leave them on some damp kitchen paper. This will just make the hard seed coat weaker. You should sow seed of sweet peas undercover between October and April. Don’t make a mistake by sowing in short or stumpy pot. If you gonna do that its roots will not have any chances to grow and branch.

To sow seed you will need:

• multi purpose/peat free potting compost,
• seeds,
• pots.

Put the compost in the pot and then sow two seeds in one pot. Make a hole with your finger and push those seeds in about 2 to 3 cm below the compost surface.

Now you know hot to grow sweet peas from seed.

Growing sweet peas

In fact this is funny but early sowing is one of the secrets to growing sweet peas. Keep reading and find out more informations. Sweet peas should be planted in late winter or early spring (just when the soil is dry enough to work). However if your garden is in mild winter climates you should plant sweet peas in late fall.

Growing tips: sweet pea should be grown in type of soil which retains moisture but also drains well. Sweet peas aso loves sun so sunny location is the best idea.

Support to your sweet peas

Think of providing support to your sweet peas. Why? Well it is easy answer. There are few reasons why you should think of getting your sweet peas support:

• sweet peas are climbers so it is a great idea to give them at least 6 feet of support. Some of them may even be 9 or 10 feet tall,
• as you already know sweet peas prefer cool temperatures in the night as well as durning the day. So those plants may fade when temperatures go over 65 °F.

Just tie the first few stems into the support this will give plants good start and rest will just follow.

Picking flowers

Pick sweet pea flowers and make a bouquets. If you gonna do that your plant will put more energy into more blooms instead of going to seed. The more flowers you will pick the more of flower production will happen.

Here goes gardening tip: when leaves start to lose the color let the few of those last flowers form the seedpods. Later on dry them on a windowsill and after you done with that store that in an envelope in a dry place to sow it next year.

Tip: when the first flowers will show up, start cutting flowering stems to create your beautiful indoor bouquets.

Growing tips

There are many gardening and growing tips so keep reading to find some of them. Here they goes:

• when young sweet pea plants starts growing tie them into the frame – don’t let them to flop around,
• because most sweet peas germinate at around 65%, you should sow two seeds per tube,
• if you started your seeds indoors ans your plants now how abut three or four pairs od leaves start to harden them off. Move trays to an outside location which gonna give them direct morning sun and also afternoon shade,
• cardboard tubes or root trainers are better than small pots in sowing sweet peas.

Common issues/pests/diseases

There are few things that we should think about while we are the sweet peas owners. They can be dealing with things like:

• mildew – this can be a problem when sweet peas aren’t getting enough water. To overcome this water them more of maybe try on spraying your sweet peas. Also dry or stressful conditions can be a reason of powdery mildew. To prevent this you should keep sweet peas well watered on free draining mulch and soil around the base of the plant to retain moisture,
• turning yellow – if your sweet pea plants are turning yellow they can be dealing with fungal problems. To avoid this you should ensure that your plants are in free-draining soil,
• not flowering – if your sweet peas are not flowering it maybe a reason of lack of sun sweet peas needs lots of sunlight so make sure that they are in full sun area,
• dying – if you are noticing that your sweet pea is dying you may probably taken care of it in wrong way. Remember that sweet peas are thirsty and hungry plants so keep feeding them regularly,
• slugs and snails – those may attack your sweet peas.

Interesting things about sweet peas

• in fact sweet pea is annuals however Lathyrus latifolius or so called everlasting pea is perennial,
• sow in containers in early spring which is about 6 to 7 weeks before the last frost date,
• sweet pea flowers may be in many colors like for example dark pink, light pink, lavender, violet, purple, red, yellow, white and even blue,
• when the growing season is coming to an end the stems are very much likely to become progressively shorter – it doesn’t matter what you will keep doing to prevent it from happening it will happen anyways,
• if you want to encourage bushy growth of your sweet peas pinch off the tops when plants are 6 inches tall – not shorter not taller,
• sweet peas can be grown in hanging basket, windowsill box, pot or even urn,
• when you will notice first leaves coming up you should place them in bigger pots and then you can place them even in an unheated greenhouse, ignore them, and in fact they will thrive,
• sweet peas are okay with light frost, they will very likely handle it good,
• it is quite important to deadhead sweet peas. Just look out for seed pods developing and snip them off regularly,
• if you collected any seed pods keep them in an envelope and allow them to dry for about a month. When thgey are dry they are simply ready to be plant in next winter,

Conclusion

Now after this article you know that sweet peas likes full sun and you also if you were asking yourself “can sweet peas” be grown in pots you now now the answer. There are many types of sweet peas you can see them on seed packets.

sweet pea is wonderful flower in fact it is considered desirable cut flower. Sweet peas are loved by many people as their garden peas as cut flowers.

Now you are ready to plant sweet peas yourself you also know how to take care for sweet peas so go for it and grow sweet peas! Do it and enjoy your beautiful and colorful garden.