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Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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Posted by campanula UK Cambridge (My Page) on
Tue, Mar 5, 13 at 17:07

Every year, I have the same dilemma - should I be a good gardener and grow my sweet peas on a neat cordon, tying them in and cutting the tendrils and side shoots......or should I just let them run amok. Yeah, I know the best long stems and largest flowers are a given when they get the individual treatment but I have to do this endless tying in and tweaking with the tomatoes so the sweet peas usually sends me over the top....and this year will be especially bad because, as it is my last year on the allotment, I ran amok and sowed hundreds of them (19 varieties).
Painful compromises - I often start well then sorta 'ease off' as the general horticultural chaos reaches a peak, just as the peas are full on. And then, the deadheading! If you miss even 1 pod, will the plants close down flower production? How many can I get away with....or how long with pods? If I wasn't so frazzled by then, I would probably have been more observant, but every year, July passes in a frantic blur until here we go again, it's the next year and I am still clueless.
So, what do you do?

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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I never have a problem with sweet peas. It seems like you are planting them too thick and they don't have support to climb on so you have to tie them. I only have to tie the odd one.

I guess our growing season is much shorter than yours because I never get many pods and they never fill with seeds.

You might try putting in one well spaced row with support and saving the rest of the seed and then plant another row behind and between the first row about 3 or 4 weeks later and letting the second ones climb on the first ones. That way it wouldn't matter about the seed pods you'd still have flowers

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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campanula is using the standard traditional way of growing sweet peas for cut flowers or for showing over here. They produce longer stems and larger flowers when grown as cordons. I doubt she is sowing too thickly if she's growing as cordons. Mine always go to seed unless cut. I only grow a few plants for cut flowers but they need picking over every couple of days in summer or they will produce pods and stop flowering.

Campanula - I grow mine on tall pea sticks. They hang on by themselves. But I also don't single them to one stem and consequently don't get very long stems for vases.

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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Well, I sowed so many that I can indulge myself by growing one of each variety on a single cane and let the others (planted in pots of between 4-6) romp up the string between the old tomato supports (the whole allotment is a mass of timber poles, posts, frames, nets and wires - looks like a particularly lethal obstacle course).
As for second and third sowings, not a hope.
So Flora, what do you reckon re.deadheading. Do you think if we miss even one pod, flower production will cease? I generally start off quite enthused.....for a couple of weeks, then it tails off. The best thing about not tying in is ripping great armfuls out to pile on the compost (unlike the stressful and tedious untying which has to be done with tomatos).
One year, I carefully untied them (sweet peas), laid them out on the ground and then started retying, a couple of canes further down the row (the plants had started to overtop their original poles) - never again - a complete 'mare which barely extended the growth by two more weeks!

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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Campanula - I dont have anything in the way of advice on this, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoy they way you write - very expressive and fun to read!

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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Campanula - I grow so few I pick all the flowers for the house, so I've never done the experiment to see what happens if you leave some. I just bung the whole lot, stems and pea sticks onto the compost.

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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Thank you, Mandolls (curious name, by the way...)
I work as a jobbing gardener and the phrase 'less is more' is never far from my lips when referring to customers planting ideas.......yet, I totally fail to take my own advice. My postings (and my gardens) are the opposite of the standards I set for my customers - clear, concise, to the point. Left unsupervised, my gardens, and my writing veers more towards vague, rambling and tangential (and frequently snippy and belligerent).

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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  • Posted by gerris2 Zone 7a Delaware (My Page) on
    Sun, Mar 10, 13 at 7:12

Which sweetpea variety is your favorite? There are so many of them to choose from, the sea is so big and my boat is so small. Is there one which the makes bee pollinators go wild with joy?

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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  • Posted by gerris2 Zone 7a Delaware (My Page) on
    Fri, Mar 15, 13 at 17:20

Have you ever seen or grown Lathyrus aureus 'Cally variegated'? It seems to be available in Europe but not in USA yet. I was just curious.

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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suspect next year I may hit my stride with peas - particularly the lovely L.vernus, L, tingitanus and L.nervosa (forgive spellings) but this year, I am really looking forward to a couple of New Zealand varieties - Erewhon and Blue Shift. A bit weedier but still delightful is a combo of Lipstick (a red, obvs) and Burnished Bronze. Have always loved lavender and cream together and Kings High Scent puts both colours together with spectacular fragrance.

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RE: Sweet peas (long and waffling)

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suspect next year I may hit my stride with peas - particularly the lovely L.vernus, L, tingitanus and L.nervosa (forgive spellings) but this year, I am really looking forward to a couple of New Zealand varieties - Erewhon and Blue Shift. A bit weedier but still delightful is a combo of Lipstick (a red, obvs) and Burnished Bronze. Have always loved lavender and cream together and Kings High Scent puts both colours together with spectacular fragrance.

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