Easy to grow, come in an abundance of colour, and many fragrant varieties, the sweet pea should be every gardener’s summer favourite.
Sweet pea are great for using as cut flower. The best sweet peas for cutting are those with long, straight stems and strong fragrance. The best way to ensure straight stems is to train sweet peas with the cordon method (read more on the cordon method below). Regular picking is essential to keeping them productive, too, so you’ll never be short of vase or two of scented blooms. When it comes to cutting them, the best time of day is first thing in the morning, or early evening, when the plants are least likely to be stressed and dehydrated. Pick stems when the lower three flowers are fully open, but the top flower is only just unfurling.
Sweet peas enjoy an open, sunny position in a well-drained but moisture-retentive soil. They are well suited to growing in pots, when potted in peat-free soil and a slow-release fertiliser.
To train your sweet peas to grow straight and tall with the cordon method you select the strongest looking stem and pinching the rest back to ground level. Attach stem at eighteen inch intervals to one sturdy cane. Like with tomatoes, whenever side branches form between the main stem and leaves, pinch them out, this encourages all the energy to thicken the main trunk. When the stem reaches the top of the support, untie it, stretch it over the ground to three canes along and then turn the tip and attaches it there. All those little twiddly bits – by which the peas climb – are removed, as they also take energy from the flowers. Give the ground a good manuring in the autumn and feed plants with blood fish and bone.
For more information, please contact us on 01534 856699 and ask for our outdoor plant team or email us at enquiries@ransoms.je
