Lathyrus adoratus.  Beautiful and fragrants.  The long, vining stems make excellent cut flowers.
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​These old-fashioned favorites are stalwarts of cottage garden ideas, where their frilly blooms in myriad colors can be enjoyed scrambling up obelisks, trained up trellis and supports, and filling borders with their heady scent.

If you are planning a cut flower garden, they are a brilliant choice and are available in nearly every shade to complement many floral displays. 

How To Grow Sweet Peas
Relatively easy to grow, sweet peas are among the best fragrant flowers and have been grown in our gardens for centuries as part of flower bed ideas.  These typical cottage garden plants need to be sown in cool weather and tend to do better in places with cooler weather, preferring mild winters and cooler summers. They tend to begin blooming just before the temperature starts to really rise. Summer-flowering varieties are recommended for growing outside in areas where summers are not too hot and winters milder.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a large garden and are wondering how to grow sweet peas, they can easily be grown in deep containers as a patio planting idea or on a balcony garden provided they have vertical support.

There are now options of dwarf bush types, which grow 9-25 inches tall, and are sturdy, without the need for much support, making them useful for containers and in borders. However, the majority are climbing varieties that are trained up trellis, sticks, and fences, growing 6 to 9 feet tall. 

Although they have garnered a reputation for being a bit of a diva, it is well worth the effort to learn how to grow sweet peas, and, given the right conditions, they will more than reward you with the results.

Sweet peas are best grown from seed. You can either sow the seeds directly in the ground in cool weather, in fall or spring, or in containers indoors to be then hardened off and planted out in mid-spring.

Preparing your sweet pea seeds will help you get the best results from growing sweet peas. Place the seeds on damp blotting paper or kitchen paper towel for 24 hours and also nick the outer coat of the seed with a sharp blade or nail clippers so it can absorb water better.

Follow this step-by-step guide on how to grow sweet peas from seed in containers:

1. To encourage strong and vigorous root growth, sow sweet peas into root trainers or 3 inch pots filled with a mixture of potting compost and 20 per cent sand. Plant a single seed about 1cm deep into each cavity, cover with compost and water. To assist germination, place them in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.
2. Sweet peas are hardy, so once the seedlings have sprouted the sweet peas can be moved outside into a cold frame or a sheltered area of the garden to get maximum sunlight.
3. Once the seedlings have developed two pairs of leaves, pinch out the growing shoot just above the top pair to encourage more vigorous side shoots.
4. Before the seedlings are ready to be planted out in spring, it’s important to prepare your site. Sweet peas are hungry plants, so fertilize the soil by digging in plenty of well rotted manure or organic matter. At this stage you can also prepare your supporting structure. Sweet peas are climbing plants and are best grown up a vertical support such as an obelisk, wigwam or jute netting. 
5. In late March to April, the plants are ready to be planted out. Plant a seedling at the base of each bamboo cane or obelisk support by digging a hole deep enough to accommodate the long roots, infilling with soil and watering in well. Planting in a cluster of three will create a more rambling look.
6. After a couple of weeks, once the plants have established and developed secondary shoots, select the strongest shoot and remove the others, this will encourage a stronger plant and larger blooms.

Alternatively, you can sow your sweet peas direct in the ground in fall or spring, first preparing the ground by adding in well-rotted homemade compost or manure.

When sowing directly use a tool or stick to make a furrow as it is important to bury the seeds at one-inch depth, placing each seed 3-5 inches apart, and then after sowing cover the seeds without creating a mound, before gently watering the soil.

If you have started your seeds inside you will need to harden off the seedlings before transplanting into your garden once all risk of frost has passed. 

Where Is The Best Place To Plant Sweet Peas?
As sweet peas are among the best flowering climbers, have supports in place before planting so you don’t disturb them. Avoid planting by a wall, as air needs to circulate freely.

Sweet peas need ample sunlight and do poorly when shaded. Select an open spot in rich, well-drained but moisture-retentive soil, amended with compost or composted manure. Except on naturally alkaline soils, lime should be added to the soil at about one cup per square meter on light soils, and two on heavier. Mulching will keep the roots cool and retain moisture while growing. 

For optimum flowering, sweet peas like their heads in the sun and the roots deep in cool and moist earth. They also need lots of room, both width and depth. Planting too closely together can create an environment for powdery mildew and reduced flowers. And of course, choose a spot that’s easy to access for regular picking.  
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Sweet peas are particularly at home in vegetable gardens or cutting gardens, scrambling up wigwams or string cordons among a medley of edibles and ornamentals. The added bonus is that sweet peas are good plants for pollinators, especially bees, being rich in nectar and pollen, and so are good for companion planting. The flowering pillars are ideal for wildlife garden ideas.

Caring For Sweet Peas
Once you have mastered how to grow sweet peas you need to know how to care for them. 
Sweet peas will start blooming approximately 4-6 weeks after visible vining. Regular maintenance will keep the plant flowering. To keep it fuller, pinching it back will encourage side shoots, as will snipping off the central vines just above leaf joints and deadheading. 

As mentioned, they make fabulous cutting garden flowers. And as the days get longer, they will grow and flower faster. Always pick your sweet peas for the vase in the morning before the sun has time to dehydrate them. Select freshly opened flowers on the longest stems and remember not to cut the main stem of the plant, only the side-flowering stems. They may only last up to 5 days in a vase but what a glorious few days! 

Deadheading by trimming back the old flowers left for display encourages new growth right into late summer or the beginning of fall. To deadhead, follow the stalk down of the spent flower to a set of leaves and trim just above the node. Sweet pea flowers are fairly long-lasting but when they eventually dry out with the summer heat they turn to seed.

If you want to try collecting seeds, however, for next year, leave some of the best flowers on the plant as the best will provide the best seeds. Seeds are ready for harvesting when they are brown and dry and the pods are just starting to pop open. The saved seeds should be viable for 3-5 years. Keep in mind though that the seeds may not produce plants that are the same color as the parent plant. 

As well as watering use a liquid feed regularly for good growth and flowers. Water every day unless it has rained.

Fortunately, the only pests that attack the flowers are aphids, which tend to appear after a dry spell when plants are under stress. Wash them off with regular blasts of water.

What Is The Best Way To Grow Sweet Peas?
The best way to grow sweet peas is from seed. Sweet peas are hardy annuals and only need protection from harsh frosts; sowing them in fall will give them an early start and a chance to establish really strong root growth before being planted out in spring. 
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Another key thing to remember when growing sweet peas, is that they are hungry and thirsty.

Do Sweet Peas Need To Climb?
Yes, all sweet peas are climbing plants and are best grown up a vertical supporting structure such as an obelisk, wigwam, jute netting, or other vertical garden ideas. 

If you want to learn how to grow sweet peas as a cut flower then they can also be cordon-grown, up individual canes set in a row as part of a purpose-built structure.

In the first month of growth, your plant will need help to guide it with twine or clips, checking it every couple of days. Once the tendrils form and grab hold you will need to check it’s growing as desired. Some gardeners snip off the tendrils and keep manually tying in the plant. Pinching out the tips of the plant by nipping off the top of the stem with your fingers above a set of leaves encourages side shoots. 

How Much Sun Do Sweet Peas Need?
Sweet peas need a good amount of sunlight, but grow best in cooler conditions in moist, free-draining soil and do not like getting too hot
 
Can Sweet Peas Be Grown In Pots?
Yes, sweet peas can be grown in pots as part of your container gardening ideas. 

For containers, use a peat-free compost with a loam compost and mix in a slow-release fertilizer.

Containers and raised beds need to be at least 17 inches (45cm) deep to not inhibit growth. Raised garden beds can be a great way to grow sweet peas if your soil is boggy as drainage is improved.

How Often Should You Water Sweet Peas?
You should water sweet peas regularly in dry weather. A dry soil makes sweet peas go to seed quicker and flower stems shorter so sweet peas should never be allowed to dry out.

It is important to know when to water plants. If you put your finger to its first joint into the soil and it feels dry, water them. Damping down the surrounding area and spraying the foliage with cool water is also beneficial in hot spells to keep the plant in good condition.

Lupines (Lupinus spp.) are attractive and spiky, reaching 1 to 4 feet (30-120 cm.) in height and adding color and texture to the back of a flower bed. Lupine flowers may be annual and last only for a season, or perennial, returning for a few years in the same spot in which they were planted. The lupine plant grows from a long taproot and does not like to be moved. Lupines grow wild in some areas of the United States, where they are hosts for the larvae of endangered species of butterflies. Wildflowers of the lupine plant generally come in in hues of blues and white, although domesticated lupines offer flowers in blues, yellows, pinks and purples. Tall, spiky racemes produce lupine flowers similar to those of the sweet pea plant.

How to Grow Lupines
Growing lupines is as simple as planting seeds or cuttings into a sunny area with well-drained soil. If planting lupine from seed, scratch the seed surface or soak seeds overnight in lukewarm water to allow the seed coat to be easily penetrated. Seeds of the lupine plant may also be chilled for a week in the refrigerator prior to planting.

This may also be accomplished by planting lupine seeds in the fall and letting Mother Nature do the chilling through the winter. Direct sowing of lupine seeds in autumn is perhaps the easiest method. Lupines produce seed which will re-produce more flowers the following year if not removed from the growing lupine. Average soil is best for growing lupines. Utilize this trait and plant lupines in areas of the landscape that have not been composted or amended in other ways.

Getting More Lupine Flowers
To encourage blooms, fertilize lupines with a plant food that is high in phosphorus. Nitrogen rich fertilizer may encourage growth of the foliage and do little to promote flowering. Deadhead spent blooms for returning lupine flowers.

The lupine plant fixes nitrogen in the soil and is a great addition to your vegetable garden or any area where nitrogen loving plants will be grown. A member of the pea family, lupines are beneficial in many ways. Now that you know how to grow lupines, add this tall, showy bloom to an area where lupine flowers will be visible and act as background for other full-sun blooms. A flowering ground cover planted beneath the lupine plant helps keep roots cool and will benefit from the nitrogen in the soil, creating a showy display in the landscape.
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