Tying in and picking sweet peas

Tying in & Picking Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are a classic favourite and very easy to grow from seed, so a good starter if you're new to growing from seed.

I grow 'Cupani', one of the oldest and most scented, along with larger-flowered modern varieties such as an old-fashioned sweet pea mix from Chiltern.

• If you can't decide which sweet peas to grow because there's so much choice, mixes can be a really good bet.

Sweet Pea Growing Tips

Planting time is key:

• don't leave your plants for too long in root trainers – you don't want them to lose vigour and start going yellow. I planted in early to mid-spring.

Sweet peas are hungry and thirsty:

• water in well after planting and continue watering every day or every other day for the first 2-3 weeks.
• incorporate plenty of homemade compost into the soil when planting, as they need lots of nutrients.
• you can also feed with an organic seaweed liquid feed to keep them flowering well.

Supporting and Tying In

Sweet peas need something to grow up that's ideally a bit more twiggy than bamboo for the tendrils to cling to, so I use a hazel wigwam with pea sticks.

They can be unruly so need to be tied in to keep them growing in the right direction. You don't need to tie in every stem, but just use a loop of string to tie any wayward stems into the wigwam frame.

Picking Sweet Peas

It's important to keep cutting sweet peas so that they continue flowering. Here are five things to bear in mind.

1. The obelisk may look lovely, but you want to cut off every single flower when you pick.

• Don't worry – within 2-3 days the plants will be covered in flowers again.

1. If any flowers go to seed, remove the seedpods.

• If allowed to go to seed, the plants will stop flowering.

1. If you cut off some of the tendrils too, this will divert energy into the flowers.

• Whenever I'm cutting, I snip off a few tendrils.

1. Always cut right at the very base of the stem.

• Some flowers will have short stems, as they tend to shorten with re-flowering.

1. When the stems get very short you can cut the flower stem along with some of the plant it's attached to, to extend the stem.

• The plant will branch out and grow back, and it'll give a different look in the vase with some foliage and tendrils among the flowers.