I bought some trough planters to hang on the railings of my front porch. I sowed dwarf sweet peas (Bijou Mix) in them with the idea that they will mass and trail down over the edges of the planter. However, in looking for pictures online, it seems that sweet peas grow fairly vertically, and don't really trail or cascade downwards as I was lead to believe from the description on the seed packet. Does anyone have any experience with sweet peas? Should I abandon my idea? Would petunias be a better fit for my end goal? I am curious to see what happens, but at the same time I don't want to waste precious time, especially if I am going to be disappointed. I live in zone 5B, and the planters are located in a position that gets full sun (from sunrise to about two or three in the afternoon).

HEre in Maine, we do have unseasonable warmups, but Ive never seen them long enough to germinate items, but like many has said, peas (beans as well) really do not do well sitting in a freeze/thaw cycle of a wintersown containers. I to do not sow now until end of feb or early march, for several reasons. 1. Here there is still plenty of cold weather , long enough to stratifiy what is needed at that time. 2. If we get a BAD winter year.. enough ice/snow will crush your milk jugs, Ive seen it, Ive had years where Ive lost most of containers when I used to sow around Christmas before. 3. Its usually a little warmer , if I wait for a warm weekend around this time frame, I can actually sow outside and use a hose, this greatly reduces the mess I make in the house. BTW, I always direct sow peas.. Ive really handnt any issue getting germination , I never soak either, just plant them when its still cool out (frosty weather) along with your spinich time frame (though recently I enjoy wintersowing my spinich) Silverkelt

Why not give them a try? Conventional methods say to start them in early spring, when the soil has thoroughly thawed. So what if it's late spring? You might get something from them before the real heat hits. I think I'll try some too. PV

I planted Early Multiflora mix (this variety, if planted by labor day, will begin to bloom in winter!). The purple ones looked and smelled the best, so we collected seeds from these (purple only) at end of season. Planted only purple last fall (2004)---all came up and bloomed up until August of this year! It gets hot here---they were in morning sun/filtered afternoon sun (as on fence behind/under a peach tree). We collected seeds from the purple ones this year again, and I just planted them out this past week. One thing---to get good blooms, do not overfertilize. If you do, you will get a lot of green growth but sparse blooms! Fertilize very sparingly! I fertilized only once (lightly, with Osmocote slow release fertilizer) at the beginning of the season, and got lots of good smelly blooms. Oh, and lots of water with good drainage (once sprouted). Hope this helps. Becky