I take all of your cautions about Morning Glories to heart, and I won't plant them so that they actually use the roses as trellises, but I do think that those of you who rail against them are thinking of the perennial version and not the annual versions that are available. I am well aware of the shed or house-eating qualities of the perennial Morning Glory; I planted one because I wanted it to hide an ugly shed, and it does a pretty good job of that. But the annuals are....just that....annuals which die back (at least here in Zone 9), and occasionally (only occasionally) reseed and even then only minimally. To get MG's to do well here I have to start them indoors because they like more heat than we get. Still, I do think you are all right that they would be too big and too heavy and block too much air if planted as a true companion to roses, and so....I'm just not gonna do it. Gee, it's so much fun to have been able to log on at all that I'm just going on and on.... Susan

Others may have experienced differently, but my Heavenly Blue MGs normally don't return even tho I'm sure seed is dropped in the fall before I get the vines cleaned up. Other varieties of MGs do however. As far as the sweet peas, I haven't attempted to grown them but several times and when they did manage to sprout and grow, the blooms remained well into August. And these were not real healthy looking vines. Except for the unscented sweet peas in the orchard - forgot about those - they are perennial and have come back in the spring for many years now and are re-bloomers.

Hey Devi, Welcome to the forum! Always great to have new folk arrive! I'm not in E TN, but I hate to see queries go unanswered... I've grown annual sweet peas commercially, so my experience may or may not be helpful to you. I start them in a cold greenhouse, meaning it gets down to about 34 but doesn't freeze. As you may know, lathyrus loves cold, most soil. You just want to avoid lots of freeze-thaw cycles. Some folks soak seed before sowing, but I never have and haven't had any problems. I do, however, use inoculant, which, oddly, no one tells you to do with sweet peas. Like all other legumes, the rhizobia help the pea roots uptake nutrients. I sow into the final container if possible, as pea seedlings resent transplanting; if you're careful and bump them up before they get very big, transplanting is OK. I use ProMix BX and incorporate a charge of granular fertilizer, my favorite being Flower-Tone (97% organic and great for all herbaceous plants). Mice love to raid the pots for those big fat seeds, so if you have mice (and you may and not know it, particularly in a garage or basement) it's a good idea to put screen over the pot/flat until the peas are well up and growing. This is a hungry species. I topdress with Flower-tone when they're about 1 ft high, and again as they're setting buds. The peas should be blooming in May/June if you get them going now. They hate hot weather, so they basically fry by the end of June. England is their kind of climate, actually -- or the Pacific Northwest. In terms of varieties, I've never grown the knee-hi types ('Snoopea' et al) so can't speak to those. I select for flower color, size and scent and have found performance is generally OK over a wide variety of colors and series. Spencers are good, and Floribundas, and I've had particularly good luck with a series called the Winter Series. I buy seed commercially, and I'm not sure what's available to the homeowner. I have grown a few varieties offered by Thompson & Morgan over the years, and a pink one called 'Rosemary Vesey' (IIRC the name right) did quite well. T & M's sweet pea seeds seem to offer no germination issues, unlike most everything else they sell. Culturally, I give 'em full sun. Moving them into part shade about mid-May prolongs their life a bit. Early in life, though, they need high light or they get weak and stretchy. Bud set seems to be initiated by high light and increasing day length. Never started them in mixed containers. It may work, but I'd be inclined to start the seed in a container and carefully transplant int into the mixed pot at about 6" tall. But then, my aim is always to produce marketable containers, so everything has to work very predictably for me. Hope this helps. Marty

I don't think you have to worry about the clematis at all. If it was me, I'd probably look at a clematis that blooms early in the summer to pair with it, depending on the size of the obelisk. The one clematis I know of that blooms for long periods of time, is Rooguchi. It doesn't have tendrils but it would ramble up the clematis and look very pretty. I am glad you are keeping your SAC and I hope you find a lovely companion for it, whatever it might be. I miss mine & am really thinking about getting another one this spring. My mother-in-law gave me one as a house warming gift two years ago when we bought our home, and I didn't know that clematis grown in pots needed protection (it was my first summer of gardening) and it didn't survive winter. It was beautiful & vigorous in it's first year, that's for sure. Good luck! Let us know what you decide. :o) Michaela Here is a link that might be useful: Rooguchi Clematis