Sweet Peas: Late but Welcome

Beautiful picture love the smell of these lovely variety of colour you have there

Nice colors there.

Beautiful sweetpeas Greenthumb I bet they smell lovely.....

Putting on a good show for you now.

Wow, they are late! My Sweetpeas have all finished now. I had a cerise one that was still flowering only a week or so ago. It was one of the dozen or so I had growing in toilet roll tubes all over winter. In spring I planted them out in their flowering positions & they gave me quite a few months of flowers.

Thank you all. I am glad to see them. Blooming along in this strange indian summer that has happened lately. The scent is filling things up and competing with the dainthus bed. Still a great smell. I'm very curious about the toilet roll pot and the overwintering process you're describing Balcony. Sounds like my pea season could be lengthened with a method like that.

Yes, Balcony, I'm going to try that too. I know they grow better trenched, so perhaps this starts them off that way.

I just put a load of the cardboard inner tubes of toilet rolls into a seedtray, filled them with compost & planted a couple of seeds in each. Then I pinched out the tops when they had made a couple of pairs of true leaves & then "forgot" about them during the winter. On the odd occasion I watered them but other than that they got no more attention. They spent all the winter on the balcony on the table in the most sheltered corner. They shared the table with my Geraniums & other plants. The only protection they received was the same thick polythene bag the other plants on the table were in.

This bag I got from a factory where I used to work. It's about a metre square & has an open top which avoids most of the condensation problem. It's rolled down most of the time & I only put it up when hard frost is forecast. If we are forecast really hard frost I close the top.

Thank you Balcony. That is something I really should try. I'd love for them to have a step ahead. If I just start the seed early I get thin leggy things that die when they move outside.

Sweetpeas are hardy plants & with just a little protection from the worst of the cold they can live outside all winter - well, our winters, perhaps yours are a lot colder than ours & they might need some protection. Try to keep them as cold as possible without them ever freezing.