Sweet Peas by Christmas

Just a reminder to those who live in the coast area of southern California- sweet pea seed that is sown in September has a possibility of producing blooms by Christmas.

Each year I try to have sweet peas for Christmas. Sometimes I make it. Sometimes I don’t. Last winter, my first bouquet was picked in the last week in January. The winter before I had bouquets in December. A lot of years, there are only a handful of stems with blossoms at Christmas time.

I planted my seeds a week ago and the first one was coming up this morning.

Thank you Loyd-with-one-L, for reminding me. If you don't know the reference to your name it's from one of my favorite authors books, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Loyd-with-one-L was a very cool dude too.

As a recently-moved-to-SoCal resident, I want to thank you for this info. I love sweet peas and have never been able to grow them anywhere else. I HOPE I can here! We have a lot of morning fog. Do you know if it is likely to be a problem? Thanks!

Sweet peas like things on the cool side, so they'd probably be OK with fog. It's blazing hot summer temps that they don't like, so if your summers are cooler they should be very happy.

QE...sweet peas will do fine in San Marcos.

Just give them plenty of air circulation. They'll mildew badly if there isn't sufficient air movement...especially in foggy conditions, like near the coast.

Thanks for the reminder, Loyd !

I had a friend in Oceanside who grew the prettiest sweet peas I've ever seen, huge and vibrant. She dug down a couple of feet next to a fence, filled the trough with nothing but steer manure (sterilized and composted in a bag) and planted the seeds directly in that. I've always meant to try that and maybe I'll actually get it done this year.

Our elderly neighbor had a field full of sweetpeas for many years. They'd all reverted to the very scented wine color and naturalized. Every year he'd wait until the seeds had dropped before mowing his fields...then he died and his inheritors mowed the fields before the seeds dropped. I really cried for the loss of them. He also had a gigantic patch of naturalized violets...sure do miss him!
edited to add that I shouldn't say "reverted"...I suppose they were simply the ones left that under those situations came back every year.

This message was edited Dec 24, 2007 5:12 PM

It's the day before Christmas. I've been hoping the last few months that at Christmas time I would be able to post a picture of my sweet pea vines with a big array of flowers. The vines look nice and healthy, about 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall. There are only two blooms of on the vines. Not worth taking a picture of.

I'll be posting a picture in a few weeks when I have more flowers.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Loyd

Thank you for the sweet pea info! (See Oct. above) I planted nursery seedlings in Oct. I did not get blooms by Christmas, in fact they did not even grow very well, but suddenly took off in Jan. and began to bloom a little in Feb. Now in March they have been just gorgeous all month! I have them in my raised bed "Square Foot Garden" on one end on trellises. They're multi-colored and beautiful. A great Easter bouquet!

queenesther,
Have you noticed that we have our annual Roundup coming up in June? Held again this year at drdon and Pam's ranch in Temecula and it's a great event...hope we see you there! There are several threads going...one for plant trades if one wants to do that, one for food list for potluck, one for listing attendees.
Sherry