In article ,
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"Sacha" wrote in message
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On 2009-08-28 17:27:11 +0100, soup said:

We have a 'wall' of sweet pea plants that have had a GLORIOUS display of
coloured flowers, still displaying but a bit past their best. Have had a
lot of hover flies around them and there has been a lot of pollinating
going on. Now we are being presented by mange tout things but they are
'furry'. I take it these are the seed pods of the sweet peas should these
be taken of and dried or left in situ or ...? Any sweet peas we are
likely to plant next year will be grown from plugs/bought seeds so do we
actually want these pods for anything?

Unless they're species sweet peas (like Lathyrus matucana) they're
unlikely to come true from seed. You could keep a few ripe pods for fun
and interest but otherwise, there's no reason to do so. But if you want
to keep the flowers coming, cut off the seed pods straight away. We grow
Lathyrus matucana which I am particularly fond of, so I'm going to keep
some seed from those and see what happens.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

Hello Sacha, hope you are well. I always understood that sweet peas came
true from seed because of the way they were pollinated. Is that not correct
then?

Robert
www.rraa.moonfruit.com



It is certainly true that when the two halves of the flower when pushed
apart by a bee entering pollen is placed on the stigma straight from
the stamens and any pollen on the bee is unlikely to get a look in but it
can and does occasionally happen, also of course the strain of pea being
grown may not be seed stable and even when self pollinated will revert to
something else. But most of the older sweet peas can have the seed
collected and you get exactly the same thing the next year
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea