I adore sweet peas - my mom's favorite flower - and I grow them every year. But I have never started them at this time of year, always in early spring. I might change that practice if I had a greenhouse or room indoors for even small scale seed starting. But I don't. So I wait ;-)

I also need to grow them in a container and for my new garden, I purchased a new container dedicated just for sweet peas. It is a large round stock tank and works pretty slick! I have tall bamboo poles that I tie together to lattice the vines. The setup is not as big as I would have liked but my garden space is tiny and I also tend to overplant. I had several decent bouquets from it after a late start in its inaugural year.

And I will admit to cheating now and then and buying starts rather than seeding. That's what I did this year, as developing a brand new garden all in containers takes more time than this little old lady expected and it was too late to grow from seed. Fortunately, there is an excellent local wholesale annual grower that the better garden centers here buy from and they grow a big selection, so lots to choose.

I love sweet peas too - and I also start them in spring - but I have not grown them for some years because I never really had great luck with them. I get good germination but somehow I am doing something wrong between the germination stage and the planting/growing on stage. I can only wish I had the problem of "constant picking" lol.

But hope springs eternal (or more likely some other saying dealing with folly lol) so perhaps one spring I will try again. Goodness knows I always drool over the sweet pea pictures in the catalogs when I'm planning my seed purchases lol.

:)

Dee

So I am going to plead with you both (Dee and GG) to try some now, just in litre pots outside (although you will need a net cos of mice). Like other hardy annuals (and biennials), they will germinate and grow very slowly all winter...but they will also be growing a storming root system which will make really vigorous plants by mid May. You can still do your main sowing in spring (I do a smaller, secondary sowings in January and March because I really can't stay on top of deadheading/picking so mine invariably run to seed after a month/6 weeks or so...but with later sowings coming along, I can have sweetpeas into September. Sweetpea growing year is a bit intense but so worthwhile when I do it.

Dee, I know your zone is colder than mine but hardy annuals are tough...and the difference between an autumn sown centaurea or consolida for example, is astonishing - compared to spring sown plants they look like totally different species. You absolutely don't need a greenhouse - just like sowing hardy perennials, I line my sweetpeas (and paeonies and lilies) along the northwall of my garden. I put 6 seeds in a 5inch pot, cover with an onion net and leave them alone until I tip the pots out and plant the entire clump in a planting hole, sometime in March (no need to worry too much about frosts - these plants are hardened off and raring to go). If I have saved a bunch of seeds and have lots to spare, I might even sow direct at the same time as the autumn broad beans.

Try it as an experiment - just do half a dozen for a lark.

Just a few spindly ones, but beautiful! I I aspire to do better since I know they enjoy our cool climate and I also love the amazing clove fragrance, but I just haven't had much luck so far so I didn't even bring cut bouquet inside, just enjoyed the few that grew on the deck. I think I need to learn how to make a sweetpea harp and put them in my sunniest spot! and maybe start them indoors under lights ... For these, I placed the seeds in pots on the deck in April but took their time to sprout and finally began blooming in August, lasting even until now, although they aren't happy anymore ! I wonder if seeds will develop, I did not keep up with cutting them at all, so the pods are all there (likely too cold for them to mature).

.

(Editing to say, please ignore the embarrassing weeds and mess in the background, that is a work in progress to reclaim an area of attempted creating of a 'garden room' where the weeds are way ahead of me and will be top of the list this spring, fingers crossed) .

Edit again to add another picture from October 2 - I love how they are hanging on

I tried to grow peas a few time but never succeeded: spring sow, fall sow, winter sow, etc. Maybe I will try again this time in pots.

Please do, forever. The breeding of sweet peas has really improved so we can grow some incredibly early flowering ones (the 'Solstice' range), as well as dwarf varieties for pots and hanging baskets. And don't overlook some of the more interesting species such as l.tingitanus, l.sativus and my current favourite, the brick red .rotundifolius). While they can take a while to germinate, you can increase your chances by gently scarifying the seeds with a bit of emory cloth or a sandpaper nail file. Mice will certainly try to eat the seeds unless you cover the pots with fine mesh. I sow 5 or 6 at a time, in a 5inch deep pot. Once the seedlings are up and growing, I nip out the tops and eventually plant the whole pot in a prepared hole - the seedlings do not enjoy being prised apart so just gently upend the initial planting pot, keeping the clump of seedlings together. As a vague rule of thumb, the paler creams, whites and lavenders tend to have more scent than the brighter reds and deep pinks.