Over the Gate

Kirbs · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 648 Location: Bedfordshire

the more you cut the flower stems off, the more flowers they produce?
Mine have started to flower but the stems are short & also a lot are bent so not worth picking & putting in a vase.
Hummm maybe I did something wrong or is there a dwarf variety?
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kaz · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:17 pm Post subject:

If you don't pick them the flowers will go to seed and the plant will think it has done it's job and stop producing flowers. If you pick the flowers (or dead-head them) the plant will keep producing flowers to get seeds for next year.
Sweet peas are my favourite flower.

Rare one · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 870

Agree 100 % with all Kaz has said, we have quite a few as well. There are many varieties, we have the very long stemed for showing but on our back wall between us and kaz there are some short stemed deep pink, non scented ones. I'll go take a few pics in a bit and post them

Rare one · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 870

Here they are

not scented.

MrsWW · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:42 pm Post subject:

They are a beautiful and vibrant colour - shame they're not scented.
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Rare one · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 870

Thank Mrs WW ,Yes it is a pity as they are so beautiful, but the scented ones are closer to the back door and have a lovely aroma,gone for the paler colours this year . Will download some pics tomorrow.

bodger · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:41 pm Post subject:

Rare one has given us some cracking sweet peas and as luck would have it, we've ended up with some fantastic deeply scented and deeply coloured ones.

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lizzie44 · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 724 Location: Norfolk

Yours look like my perennial sweet peas Rare One. I have exactly the same plants growing by my front door year on year. Just wish they had a fragrance.Love Lizzie
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MrsWW · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject:

This is the first year in many that I've forgotten to plant any sweet peas - concentrating too much on the veg garden after a bad year last year due to lack of sun and too much rain.

Will definitely get back on board with sweet peas next year though.

Funny thing is, my Mum is a fantastically green fingered gardener but she cannot grow sweet peas to save her life! How weird is that?
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The World is your mirror and your mind is a magnet. Life will give you what you attract with your thoughts. Think, act and talk negatively and your World will be negative. Think, act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results.

Lois · Joined: 17 May 2009 Posts: 62

I'm a lover of sweetpeas myself I have always grown them,

A good variety is the Spencer

lots of different colours and deffinitely must be picked regularly until your ready to let them seed for your stock next year.

Sorry to tell you this Lizzie the sweetpeas that come up every year are the ever lasting variety and they sadley do not have any scent.

I start mine by collecting the seed pods at the end of the season, then sowing in the cardboard tubes from toilet rolls about February in a green house.

I have discovered that this encourages a long root system and thus produces a good strong plant,

The more the flowers, the more to pick and will provide a beautiful natural fragrance to any room

A piece of trivia ; did you know the Queen Mother's favourite flower was the sweetpea and she would only wear clothes of the colours found in the blooms.

I sadly missed growing this year , but will look forward to hopefully growing next year, and thus start the whole process of growing what I consider to be a must for any cottage garden, along with Hollyhocks, Lupins, Honeysuckle and the butterfly bush the Budlia.

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Rare one · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 870

The sweet peas we had growing on the bank for the past few years were bright red,strange thing is we did not seed these pink ones,

not that we 're complaining and no one else in our vicinity grow them, any suggestions?

bodger · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:20 am Post subject:

Blind Pugh, thats Rare Ones OH, gets seed catalogues that are devoted to sweet peas. The pictures of all the various varieties available are stupendous.

New colours seem to be brought out every year.
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Grandma Bodger · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 382 Location: Stoke-on-Trent

I have the ones that come up each year they climb all over a small building down the garden I just run out to smell them and there is a slight scent I also am growing sweetpeas in a large pot Ive been told to cut off the twirly bits and that will make the stalk longer Ill let you know