Start your sweet peas early
Sow them now but be sure to keep them safe, says Ruth
ASUMMER garden without sweet peas would be, as Blackadder so memorably said, ‘like a broken pencil’ – pointless. Beautiful to look at and with that heady scent, they are an essential part of British horticulture.
They regularly top the UK’s ‘favourite summer flower’ polls, thanks to the variety of colours, depths of scent and their versatility.
While most people are familiar with the sight of
Lathyrus odoratus scrambling up cane wigwams and pergolas, you can also buy varieties that offer low-growing ground cover and that are even fit for hanging baskets.
Sweet peas can be sown now, either in the ground or in pots, and then overwintered in a greenhouse or coldframe. The resulting plants will have stronger roots than those sown next spring and will flower earlier, too.
For the best of both worlds, sow some now and a later batch in spring for a succession of blooms into the autumn. I prefer to sow undercover now, as cold, wet soil and hungry rodents can demolish an entire sowing in winter. Sweet peas have the typical deeply questing roots of the legume family, so sow them singly in Rootrainers or several in one large, deep pot, using seed compost mixed with multi-purpose.
Some people soak them overnight or weaken the seeds’ hard shell with a nail file before sowing, but they should germinate successfully without interference. Overwinter seedlings in a well-ventilated greenhouse or coldframe and plant out next spring once the soil has started to warm up.