Given the hot, dry summer, I’d fully expected the sweet peas to fare badly this year. They like a rich, moist soil so my thin sand is less than ideal. In fact, there were masses of flowers and I was still picking a few blooms in late August.
As with everything in gardening, I think preparation was key. I grow my sweet peas among the vegetables and this year they were sharing a bed with French and runner beans. This meant they benefitted from my trial of Earth Cycle’s Soil Conditioner and Cow Compost. The bed was spread with the soil conditioner and the compost added to the planting holes, giving them much better growing conditions. (I was given the Earth Cycle products in return for a fair review.)
The lack of rain also probably helped as, knowing the soil was dry, we were more diligent about watering.
This year, I seemed to have more varieties of sweet peas than ever. Several that I had been given free to try out in return for a fair review and some from seed left over from previous years’ garden trials.
Most were single types but I also grew three mixed packets supplied by Suttons: ‘Distant Horizons’, ‘Old Fashioned Scented Mix’ and ‘True Fragrance’.
Each gave a good range of colours with enough dark flowers to set off the paler shades. I particularly liked the bi-coloured and almost mottled blooms in the ‘Distant Horizons’ and ‘True Fragrance’ collections. All had strongly scented flowers – something I think is essential.
For the second year running, I was surprised to be won over by an orange flower. While I love orange flowers in the garden, when it comes to sweet peas I usually prefer more pastel shades with the odd dark purple or cerise for contrast.
This year, it was ‘Prince of Orange’ from Suttons that proved a winner. It had flowers that were more shades of orange rather than solid colour giving them a more delicate and less strident appearance.
One of the best in terms of vigour and stem length was ‘Watermelon’ supplied by Unwins. This was a ‘good doer’, producing masses of flowers on stems that were always long enough to cut easily.
Similar in colour was ‘Princess Elizabeth’ while ‘Wild Swan’ was a good clear white with lots of flowers – both were supplied by Unwins.
Softer shades of cream and white came from ‘Lady Salisbury from Mr Fothergill’s.
The firm also sent me the beautiful ‘Turquoise Lagoon’ whose flowers were shades of pink and blue. The only downside was the often short stems that made it more difficult for picking.
‘Little Riding Hood’, also from Mr Fothergill’s, was another with shorter stems but it’s worth growing for the very pretty bi-colour flowers. It was similar to the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ from Unwins that I trialled last year though the flowers were more pink than red.
Unwins also sent me ‘Just Julia’, a really good lavender, and ‘Mary Lou Heard’, which had soft lilac-pink flowers.
October is the traditional time to sow sweet peas with the plants then overwintered in a cold frame or cool greenhouse. I don’t sow mine until the New Year and find it makes little difference to how they perform. Next year, I will be trying loo rolls instead of my usual Rootrainers to start the seeds off and I’ve already started collecting.
