Sweet peas - help please!

If you read the catalogue small print you may find that they won't be delivered until the correct planting time. It will be well past the chance of frost. Hope you enjoy them, the scent is lovely!
Monty started off his seeds last night.

Yes he did - would those be to flower this year?

Sweet peas need to put down deep roots so don't be seduced by those pretty wicker baskets with a wigwam that many garden centres sell. They like the sun. You can create a wigwam with long bamboo poles, This year, I am going to grow mine along a bamboo fence, rather than a wigwam. You probably know already Lucky - but the more flowers you pick, the more you get. Try not to let flowers go to seed

Yes. Obviously he will keep them in a greenhouse until it is warm enough to plant them out. If you watch Gardener's World regularly you will remember that he grew masses last year for his son's wedding.

I was given a tip to help get longer stems on the flowers: as soon as you see the flower buds forming, nip out the curly tendrils that the plant uses to climb up the canes to support itself. You don't need to nip them all out but if you pinch quite a few off, it means that the energy the plant would normally be putting into making more supports, is instead put into the flowers. You might have to help support the plant with a bit more garden twine or string, but the flower stems you'll get will be longer and stronger.

It depends on the weather conditions as to when you plant them out, not before May for me.
If you can’t grow them in the ground, use a deep trough, and plenty of well rotted manure.

That is all very helpful. I need to delay them sending them out till we are back from hols on 16th April. I see that it is OK to delay planting till May.

I can't put mine out until the end of May as we are prone to late frosts so I grow them from seed in toilet roll middles.

This year, instead of sowing a pack of mixed seeds I've gone for named varieties like Raspberry Ripple, Royal Wedding and Betty Maiden. A friend has asked me to grow cut flowers for her new floristry business that she's going to run from home.

I can never say No to a challenge

Merlot the named varieties are much better than the mixed ones.

So do these seeds sit in the toilet roll middles indoors? Do they need frequent watering? If I went away for a week might they survive?

You are very brave to be supplying your friend's floristry business - respect!

That sounds as though an awful lot of toilet roll middles will be needed, merlotgran

Luckygirl, I made a makeshift selfwatering system by standing pots and trays on an old bath towel with one end of the towel in a trough of water. It works very well. I used to buy capillary matting to do the same job but I couldn't find any last year (and my method is cheaper)

I used to plant the seeds outside in October in a sheltered part of the garden in toilet roll middles packed (vertically!) into a box and the gaps between also filled up with compost with seeds in them too. They were perfectly happy there until the plants were ready to plant out in spring.

Maizie You need your friends to keep their inners for you!

When ready to plant out, I put mine in a huge plastic pot ( think Bill and Ben). They like a lot food, so compost with well rotted manure is good. You can get a bag of it already mixed at the garden centre. Add some water retaining gel.
It’s important to keep them well watered and to remove the spent flowers immediately. This keeps the plants blooming.

DD and I have been saving up toilet roll middles for months.

Luckygirl When we went away this time last year I packed the toilet roll middles in a seed tray (vertically) filled them with compost, sowed two seeds in each one, watered them then stood the whole thing in an empty cat litter tray (I guess you don't have one of those ) with an inch of water in the bottom. It kept everything nice and moist and the seeds germinated successfully.

I left them on the kitchen worktop because I was worried about leaving them in the greenhouse in case we had a hot spell. We have to cover our seed trays with panes of glass to keep the mice away because they adore Sweet Pea seeds.

A washing up bowl should be OK to stand them in.

My sweet peas are 3 to a 3” pot. Sown in the autumn and being hardened off ready to plant out perhaps at the end of this month. Mind you it is snowing at the moment! So they should be totally hardened off now.

I have prepared the ground for them with garden compost and will put in fish blood and bone at planting time. They will be against an existing trellis which also has a couple of climbing roses and a couple of clematis. The sweet peas scramble in amongst them all.

luckythey will scramble in amongst all sorts if you tie them in to begin with. I would put them into the greenhouse or something similar to begin and after a day or two to settle put them out every day to gradually harden off for a week or so.

Mine are RHS seed which are always excellent. Best of luck with yours.
Pleased to see you are better?

Merlot, I also find that cat litter trays are ideal for watering seed trays from below.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am tempted to order the seedlings and ask that they are delivered after we return from hols in mid-April; then I will devote myself to their care from then on!

Merlotgran I don't have a cat, so I put the T R inners into one of those deep thin blue plastic boxes that loose mushrooms are in at the supermarket. They are exactly the right depth and the holes in the sides mean that they drain well if we get a deluge. Also they are free, and would just go to the tip otherwise. They are not as substantial as litter trays but they last for 2 or 3 seasons.

My father used to grow a whole rack (like a bean rack) of wonderful sweet peas but it'[s something that DH and I have never managed.

DH planted his seeds a couple of weeks ago but they haven't come up yet - it's probably too cold.

Perhaps we'll try planting them in the autumn before whitewave.
I do plant them on the other side of the trellis to the clematis - everything seems to do well except the sweet peas, spindly little things.

merlotgran DH used the toilet roll middles to plant parsnips and carrots and they grew nice and straight last year.