Grow your own sweetly scented sweet peas. They’re deeply fragrant, easy to grow, and make beautiful cut flowers.
Sweet Peas are one of the most deeply scented cottage garden flowers — they’re also extremely easy to grow. The more you pick them, the more they produce flowers so they’re a great choice as a homegrown cut flower. Once picked, a bouquet can last up to a week and during that time the flowers sweeten the air and add natural beauty to any room. When the bouquet needs refreshing, more blossoms will have conveniently blossomed on the vine. If you’ve not grown them before, here are six tips to get you started.
1. Select your variety
There is a dazzling array of types and colors on the market and sometimes a huge percentage of a flower seed catalog can be just sweet peas! For me, I usually grow ones I find for free at one of our seed swaps since they all smell gorgeous. On Amazon you can get this great mix of 50 Heirloom Sweet Pea Seeds. Popular named varieties include:
- ‘Painted Lady’ Sweet Pea — this is the original variety and highly scented
- ‘Spencer Ruffled’ Sweet Pea — big ruffled flowers
- ‘Windsor’ Sweet Pea — deeply coloured blossoms recommended by Floret Flowers
Sweet pea roots will appreciate the deeper growing space of these toilet paper rolls
2. Sow sweet pea seeds
Either direct into the ground or in modules. You can do this in autumn or early winter and overwinter the small plants or do it in spring. Autumn sown plants will come into bloom a few weeks before spring sown ones but you do need to keep an eye on them over the winter. Make sure they’re under cover such as an unheated greenhouse, that their soil remains moist, and that they’re protected from rodents and slugs.
Sweet peas, like garden peas, will appreciate a deeper growing space. Although ordinary modules will do, sowing seeds into root trainers or toilet paper rolls encourages stronger growth. As far as soil is concerned, sweet peas, like all legumes, love rich fertile soil rich in humus and nitrogen.
Planting out sweet peas after the last frost
3. Transplant well after the last frost
They like a lot of nutrients so it wouldn’t hurt to put them in an area dug over with compost or well-rotted farmyard manure. These flowers are great in open ground like a garden or backyard but they also do extremely well in containers. Just ensure that wherever they are they’re just kept well watered. Tip: keep a container near the door so that you’re greeted with beautiful scent every time you leave and enter the house. What a great way to begin the day.
Fruit cage as a sweet pea support
4. Give the sweet pea plants support
These plants are climbers so a wigwam of canes, a lattice of willow, or even an old ladder or other garden art will give the plants the foundation to grow tall and strong. Keep them tied in using garden string or similar or they’ll flop all over the place.
The photo above is a clever idea I spotted on a garden tour. It’s such a clever way to use the netting around the edges of a fruit cage.
Bamboo canes are inexpensive supports for sweet peas
5. Pinch out shoots
If you pinch off the top growing tip of the plant when it’s young it encourages side shoots and a thicker and more blossom-abundant plant. If you don’t pinch shoots out the shoots the plants will still grow. They just might be a bit less full than their manicured relatives.
6. Keep picking
Remember that the more you pick, the more flowers you’ll have. Flowers quickly turn into seed pods and once they mature the plant decides it’s done it’s job. You might not get as many flowers after this point but you will be able to save the seed for next year.
Dee says
Have been growing these for years and must say they are simply one of the loveliest flowers to grow. The fragrance is wonderful and fills the room where ever they are displayed. My best seeds come from a grower in Sebastapol, California. The old type Spencer varieties with individual colors named and labeled as ordered. Very long stemmed and beautiful colors. The shop is called Enchanting Sweet Peas and I have never been disappointed in any varieties grown from there. I do Spring direct sow planting in my warm Southern USA growing area which works out well for me. Thanks for your interesting and very informative blog and utube channel.
Kathy says
Thank you for the information. This is my first year growing sweet peas. I have them in containers on either side of my front door. I hope they do well! I was happy to find your site. Hope you and your family are safe and well during this time. Happy gardening!
Christine says
Thank you for this article Tanya, I have just rescued the toilet roll from the rubbish bin. I didn’t know about the pinching out. My sweet peas have just finished flowering so I am hoping to collect the seeds. I have heard that you should swap your seeds with someone else so you don’t grow in the same spot. Is this a old wives tale or not. 🤔
lovelygreens says
Pretty sure that’s an old wives tale that’s confused with crop rotation. It should be that you grow sweet peas in a different place in the garden each year.
Bree Ward says
It’s true that sweet peas are one of the most deeply scented garden flowers. I think they are also lovely and attractive. My mother has been planning to plant sweet peas in her garden because of the reasons stated above. She is now looking for seed suppliers in the area. By the way, thanks for providing the tips on how to properly grow them. I will surely share this info to my mother.
Abigail Wheeler says
How much sun do they like or need?
Felix Kraus says
Our sweet peas get blooms; but the turn black and shrivel up. Why?
lovelygreens says
They eventually die, shrivel up and turn into seed pods
Merilyn Parsons says
Love love sweet peas! Good read! I dig a ditch about a foot deep along my fence, put cow or horse manure at bottom of ditch, cover with dirt, and plant my seeds no later than Feb 28th and have beautiful sweet peas early summer to frost!
lovelygreens says
Great tip Merilyn! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Pia says
Sow them each year. Even had some seeds from wild sweet peas,they’re crimson ( they have no scent). I collect the seeds each year. Love them. My favourite I think. They’re so grateful,almost weed-like. This year mine are a bit behind due to starting late bc of moving house and garden.
Thanks for the article. I didn’t know about nipping the shoots.