Sweet Peas - the time is now!

Hey, hi there, Rj!!

Hazel, I feel terrible that I didn't catch your post earlier, I would sure have sent some seeds your way. I'll go ahead and send some anyway, some of them are bound to still come up for you next year.

The store-bought seedlings are doing great, haven't even blinked at the numerous frosts we've had. True to the patterns of past years, the ones on the SE side of my arbor are doing best, are about 3 feet tall already. The others are about 2 feet tall.

The container seeds are doing really well, too. Can't wait to see how they bloom.

Once they found the fence, they took off. The first one to find the fence is now grown about 4" above it. It's a Painted Lady! I'm not sure if I should pinch it back or just let it fall over? The fence is about 4'. The other ones are only about halfway up. I'm so excited about them! Can't wait for blooms. Thanks for showing me when to plant!

maggiemoo, there is no need to apologize anad you do not need to send me seeds. I will try to find them earlier next year. Thanks for your thoughtfulness, though, and so good to hear from you. :o)

um, please forgive my ignorance, but is a Sweet Pea an edible pea? Like Sugar Snaps and such?

No, they aren't edible. They are an annual vine with beautiful flowers that smell really good. They are really easy to grow and make great cut flowers. When I lived in So Cal years ago we planted them in the spring but in TX they need to go in fall-winter. My cut off date is Jan. 15 but I have friends that sow them through Feb. and their plants do fine. They are a cool weather plant and to aid in germination you may want to soak the seeds before you plant them.
Lisa

My first flower! I couldn't get a good pic b/c it's so dark out today and my flash is too powerful, but I have a blossom! Whoohoo!

Thanks so much for telling me how to grow these! I believe this one is Painted Lady.

Beautiful. Did you just plant this season? I planted in November but we are still frozen solid so not even a peep above ground. BTW I am in the Dallas area...not that far.

This message was edited Jan 28, 2009 9:56 AM

I planted in late November after I saw this thread. I didn't start from seed though. I bought seedlings from a local nursery. It's been much warmer down here than in your area so far. Today is pretty darn cold though!

Well, stupid me. Decided to read the entire thread again. You know that when I sleep I wipe out everything from the day before much less a couple of months. DUH

Beautiful pic Elphaba.

Just for grins I wintersowed some container sweet peas 'electric blue' (commercial) and some basket sweet peas (thanks Ficurina!) on Jan. 10th. The container SP's are about 3" high. The others haven't germinated yet, but I am sure they will. I am anxious to see the difference in them as the seeds were quite different.

Maggiemoo have your container sp's bloomed yet? Are they electric blue by any chance? Would love to see an updated pic.

Ficurina, if you are lurking, do you have any pics of the plants that you sent me seeds from?

I guess I could be patient and just wait, but love to see some pics!

Tonya

I noticed the other day that some of my "regular" sweet peas have buds on them. I always get some early buds/flowers to encourage me, but the real show starts later. I can't wait! Elphaba, have you noticed that the freezing temps we've had down here haven't made them even blink? I'm not sure about all your "northerners", you've had so much cold and ice!

My container sp's are coming along, but no buds yet. I'll try to get a picture this weekend, I get home so late in the evenings after working 10'hr days and then going to the meeting-of-the-night. Tonya, I'm hoping they will be a deep or electric blue. The package had a painting of them rather than a photo, the picture shows them blue.

Ahh, we may have gotten seeds from the same place, because mine is just a pretty drawing, too. Renee's has a beautiful collection and had a good sale a few months ago.