If you came to see us last week for PYO you may well have gone home with a lovely scented bunch of sweet peas! Lots of people have asked how we grow them and how come ours our all in flower when theirs are only just starting. So I have put a few pointers below on how we grow ours
- We plant our main lot of sweet peas out in October, the roots go much deeper in the ground making for much stronger plants. They will withstand the cold but do not like wind! - We support the plants using canes and tie up the plants as they grow. - The more you pick the flowers, the more that they will come - We take off the the side shoots from the main stem, this gives the main plant more energy to grow. - We also take off them annoying little curly bits that get caught on everything! This makes for easier picking too!
We also put in a spring lot that we sow in January time then plant out when the frost has gone. These should be summer flowering.
We have just planted out lots more flowers including; sunflowers, cosmos, statis, asters, zinnias and dahlias. Fingers crossed, if the rabbits stop eating them we should have a lovely lot of flowers for late July/ August.
See you soon at one of our PYO flower weekends :-)