Plant sweet peas for winter
SHADES OF BLUE: FOUR MIXES – QUEEN OF THE NIGHT, CUPANI, STARRY NIGHT, OCEAN FOAM
Heirloom peas have smaller flowers, but the perfume is so
It is risky to make predictions, but the signs are there that this will be a good year for sweet peas. Sweet peas (Lathyrus odorata) like deep well-prepared soil and the soil right now is moist and workable enough to make that deep trench sweet peas need. There is also an abundance of soil life, like earthworms that thrive in the moist soil. They add to the soil’s fertility and keep it aerated.
Significantly, heirloom sweet pea seeds are back, and these varieties are more heat tolerant and doubly fragrant.
The answer is fragrance, fragrance and more fragrance.
“Heirloom sweet peas have smaller flowers, but the perfume is so powerful that you need only a few stems to fill a room with fragrance,” says Marlaen Straathof of Kirchhoffs.
As Straathof explains, when breeders started to produce larger flowers with longer stems, the intense perfume was sacrificed.
Kirchhoffs heirloom range of Lathyrus odorata consists of climbing and bush sweet pea varieties. All are robust growers, bearing a profusion of small, delicate and intensely fragrant blooms, in a multitude of soft colours. Most are climbers that need to be trellised but there is a bush variety for containers or garden beds.
“Old Spice Mix” is regarded as the best sweet pea for warmer gardens. It is a climber that grows up to 2.5m and should be trellised. The mix of flowers includes white, cream, pink, rose, scarlet and purple.
For gardeners who love shades of blue, there are four mixes.
“Queen of the Night” is a mix of velvety mauve-blue shades and “Cupani”, one of the oldest sweet pea heirlooms, is a bicolor of maroon and lilac. Then there is “Starry Night”, a mix of deep blues and purples with splashes of white, inspired by the painting of Van Gogh, and “Ocean Foam”, which is a mix of navy blue, midblue and light blue with frothy cream. All are climbers, growing up to 2.5m.
An unusual variety is “Old Spice America” that has ivory-coloured flowers striped with crimson red. Also a climber, it flowers repeatedly and profusely.
For containers there is the “Cupid Mix”, which is a dwarf heirloom that grows as a bush, making it suitable for hanging baskets as well as a bedding plant in the garden. The mix consists of purple, pink, white, carmine, cherry, lavender, rose and mahogany. All are perfumed.
Another medium-sized variety for containers is Kirchhoffs’ “Bijou Mixed”. It’s also a bushy variety, growing up to 45cm, with a long flowering season. It produces sweetly fragrant pastel coloured flowers in shades of lavender, blue, pink, red and white. A good plant for beginner gardeners, it is easy to grow.
Sweet peas grow best in positions that receive full sun in winter.
For climbers, prepare the soil by making a trench 50cm deep. For bushy varieties, make the hole 30cm – a spade’s depth.
Mix the removed soil with compost and lime. Sprinkle iron chelate at the bottom of the trench or hole, with bonemeal for root development. Return the composted soil to the trench and water well.
Sow seeds directly into the damp soil and keep moist during germination. When climbers are about 18cm high, pinch off the top leaves. This encourages strong basal shoots. Water once a week, mulch to keep the roots cool, and apply Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger every 10 days when plants are in full bloom. Removing old flowers extends flowering.
Use a fertile potting mix, with added compost, and a slow release fertiliser. Pots should be at least 40cm deep.
Water container grown varieties more often, and don’t let the soil dry out. Feed once a week with a diluted organic fertiliser like Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger.
A position with full morning sun and afternoon shade is ideal. – Citizen reporter