I looove sweetpeas (fond memories of them growing in my grandparents garden near Orepuki when I was a kid) and now I'm 42 I finally have a place to grow them in my own garden. My husband has just finished a building project in the garden and I now have two venetian lattice fences to grow sweetpeas on. Now, any hints for growing great ones, well, any information at all would be great!

Hi Bronwyn, we had a magnificent display last year. They started flowering in November and lasted until we pulled them out in March - still had some flowers but they were straggly.
I had some that self sowed from the previous year that we had left in the garden, but we also purchased 'dwarf ones' - yeah right The dwarf ones grew to the same height
This year we pulled them all out, and have kept the seeds, so will be interesting to see how they go.
But I am waffling sorry!! Apart from regular watering, that is all we did, so I don't know if there is anything extra - oh and I cut off the flowers as they died
Regards, Irene

Hi Bronwyn,
all that irene has said the more you opick them the more flowers you get.
Kay D

I read to soak the seeds overnight before you plant

Four legs good, two legs bad. George Orwell

I'm no expert but love sweet-peas also and we have grown them before with mixed results.
The older varieties are usually the more fragrant ones but some of the newer ones are
more colourful. They don't like transplanting so best to plant seed directly where you want
them to grow in fertile soil. They like feeding and flower best and longest if you regularly
dead-head them.

Thanks for that tip Lynley - it makes sense rather then plopping them straight into soil. Cheers (yet again!!) Irene

Thanks for reminding me, I bought some with my last order from Parva nurseries in Tauranga and it said to sow between May and September and to store seed in fridge or freezer and had forgotten about them. Too ghastly to pleant today though.

Hi Bronwyn
In my last house(2 storey) I had a trellis of sweetpeas on ground level. They would grow right up to the top deck and the perfume was superb. Make sure you have a well fed soil to plant in - compost or fertiliser. Unless your trellis goes right into t he ground you may have to give the tendrils a littlehelp to get to the trellis- I use string or sate sticks.
If you live in Auckland mildew can be a problem but I have only had this happen once. Sometimes the growth is so huge that the weight on the trellis is quite heavy, if there is a strong wind/gale the plants may peel off so I just run a couple of strings across( parallel to the ground) to give the plants support.
I found that using seed from previous years was hopeless- I got little weedy plants with inspid flowers.
I am in a new house with no trellis or fence- I miss my sweet peas but I am not beaten yet- I wonder if I really need a clothes lines for clothes from November to March?


Stephanie

I have grown sweetpeas for years and, as above the main musts are:

Soak seeds o/nght in warm water

They are gross feeders. I plant straight into our homemade compost or else you can use a good general fertiliser. Liquid feed fortnightly when they get going. [Flower and fruit-specific]
Snails and slugs love the new shoots so be sure to bait at planting. I never have real success with last years seed. Always spindly for some reason tho they get the same treatment. Besides which some lovely new ones come out each year, grown by that very clever man........Keith someone, the dahlia and s/pea man.
Cheers.

Keith Hammett

Cheers everyone! I've been told it's good to put something dead in the bottom of the planting hole so it gives them a great feed as they grow - must keep my eye out for road kill!