Looking forward to an answer from experienced winter sowers as I also have sweet pea seeds and I was planning to direct sow them in March when I plant my regular peas.
Carol

I winter sow mine about the first of march. I sometimes have volinteers cone up so should do ok WS jim

Thanks jim, that gives me a good idea of when to sow. I discovered today sweet peas are considered a hardy annual...I'll try winter sowing them around that same time in March. Thanks again!

I have winter sowed my sweet peas also in March. Seeds were sown individually in tp rolls which I put into large 5L water bottles. They did great.

I read somewhere, they did not like their roots disturbed while being transplanted.
I will sow some this year as well.

Kiskin

Firstly, peas are frost even freez hardy. So don't worry about spring frost.

Seconly, it depends on where you are. You can sow as soon as the ground is not frozen (is workable) But this does not mean that your peas will be up next week. It will all depend how cold or warm it is. So , you sow them and forget about it for a while. They will know, better than you and I, when to grow (LOL).

Kiskin,
what is the benefit of putting them in toilet paper rolls?

thanks,
ellen

This is my first year wintersowing, but I have sown things that do not take to transplanting easily (everything that says direct sow) in toilet paper rolls or rolled newspaper planting pots that I make so that I won't disturb the roots when I transplant.

I have my fingers crossed because metroDC is packed with SNOW!!!

Thanks everyone for your follow-up posts. That's good to know about the toilet paper rolls/newspaper pots. Haven't been saving any t.p. rolls, but do have tons of old newspapers...I'm going to see if I can find that thread about newspaper pots.

I always remember the wonderful scent of some sweet peas a friend had growing in their Maine garden years ago...it will be exciting to see if I can grow them myself!

Thanks again...

Do any of you know if you can still buy the solo cups made out of that "waxed" paper?Would they be big enough to sow sweet peas,then plant pot and all?
Maybe they don't even make them cups any more?
cAROL

Ellen, just as shadysite said, sweet peas are famous for not liking their roots to be disturbed by transplanting, that is why it is better to transplant them with a tp roll or a newspaper pot.

Kiskin

I think those Solo brand bathroom cups are what you are talking about- slightly waxy? I would suggest ripping the bottom off when I planted the cup.

I have sweet peas to plant. Somewhere I read about soaking them in a tea solution for several hours before planting. I think you are supposed to nick them as well. I didn't have good luck last year with mine that were direct sowed.

What is the difference between perennial versions?

Annual sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is the scented one, but the perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius) does not have much scent as far as what I've heard. I think the perennial one is more invasive also.

I've read about soaking the seeds in water, but haven't heard about soaking them in a tea solution...I'll look into that too...

Today I found that link I was looking for about making newspaper pots (posted by sewobsessed, thank you!) so I think I'll try that for the sweet pea seeds.