Hi Anne, Would love to swap you for some very fragrant sweet pea seeds. Please look at my trade list and let me know if I have anything you want. Thanks for looking, Jen

Sweet peas are like any bean/pea plants...you should always pick pods (if an edible vegetable) before they fully mature, or pick flowers from the ornamental kind (I'm assuming this is what you're asking about) because the plant will stop producing flowers if it is allowed to set seed completely, picking the seed pods off before they can get ripe completely is not a bad idea, but be careful not to leave them on too long

Here's a photo I took today of my sweet pea 'High Scent' seedlings. They are almost too tall for the milk jugs now. Hoping to plant them out soon...still constructing a "ground-hog free" area for them. We managed to find an old iron garden fence to construct a ground-hog barrier with. Hopefully the sweet peas will grow through and around the openings in the fence...may need to add some string for them to climb on? ellenr, I don't really know how tall sugar snap peas will grow, but that's great you are growing an edible pea...I have yet to grow anything edible in my current garden due to the groundhogs (sigh). I heard they will even eat ornamental sweet peas like the ones I'm growing, even though humans are not supposed to eat them. Found an article about the sugar snap peas online (see link). Seems like there are different kinds of sugar snaps...some get to be 6 feet, but some are a bush variety. Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Sugar Snap Peas - Tips on How to Grow Sugar Snap Peas

They like them some good soil, so incorporate some good stuff in your planting patch. Maybe even dig down a foot. Even 5 linear feet of a sweet pea patch should give you more than enough bouquets, so a small amount of work turning and sprucing up your soil is worth the effort. I put the seed in a glass of water overnight before sowing, which I do sometime around Halloween. Sow a little more than an inch deep and maybe 3 or 4 inches between seeds...you can thin later if necessary. The only other tip to stave off disappointment is when seedlings emerge, they must be protected by some sort of caging from birds, which will nip the seedlings when small. Once the seedlings get to 5 or 6 inches tall, they are usually safe and protection can be removed. It is also a good idea to put in your climbing structures early...if yours will be climbing a fence, perhaps you can just put up strings or netting or chicken wire for them to climb up...sounds easy. It is easier to have these climbing aids in place before the sweet peas grow too much. Sow in Oct - Nov, flowers from May to almost July. Garden jewels that everyone loves.