Sweet Pea Flowers

Beauty of Sweet Pea Flowers

Sweet pea flowers are like a celebrity making a come back a revival of interest is buzzing around these vines.  Sweet peas were developed in the 1800’s by a nurseryman of Scottish decent.    They were a sweetly scented flower and in the Victorian Era were a floral sensation.

They have been cultivated since the 17th century and a vast number of varieties are available.  These annual climbers bear clusters of flowers in vibrant colors from vivid reds to purples to pastel whites and pinks.  There is also pink and white bicolored “Pink Lady” which dates back to the 1700’s the stems appear to fold and the flowers resemble butterflies.

Sweet peas are offered in almost every color except yellow.    Sweet peas have a long blooming season, late spring into early summer and make excellent cut flowers.  Blooming can be shorten by heat, but in cooler climates may bloom until fall.  In areas of long growing seasons, they are planted in the fall.  Their vine tendrils will attach to almost any support and can give a cottage garden effect not to mention the wonderful intense clove fragrance.

All sweet peas prefer full sun.   Well-drained rich soil in high organic matter is best.  About six weeks before the last expected frost for your area plant your seeds.  Soak seeds overnight before planting.  Use a nail file to nick any of the seeds that don’t swell.  Plant seeds about an inch deep.  Seeds should germinate about 10 to 14 days.

Sweet peas benefit from a trellis.  Put this trellis in after planting seeds because doing so later may damage the plants.  Also mulch around the plants to keep the roots cool and moist.  If space is short sweet peas can be grown in containers.  There are smaller varieties which may be used for this purpose.  To have your sweet peas blooms longer pick your flowers often and then use stems as cut flowers.

Many sweet peas are annuls, but there are a few perennials available.

If you want to see some of natures finest, plant some sweet peas and enjoy their unmistakable beauty and fragrance.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 13th, 2011 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Sweet Pea Flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.