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Choosing and growing sweetpeas
Sarah Raven wrote an article on just this on 18 November in the Daily
Telegraph. She trialled 17 varieties for smell, flowering and length of stem. Her favourite 10 are Matucana without which she says she would be 'bereft'; Midnight Painted Lady, Zorij Rose, Karen Louise, Aniversary, Black Knight, Gypsy Queen, Lord Nelson, Wiltshire Ripple. In the 'how to grow' section she says to sow at any time in autumn, two seeds to a pot, using root trainers. Use multi purpose compost and push the seeds about 1" below the surface. She doesn't soak the seed and she reckons they'll germinate in a week or two. Cover the pots with newspaper or a polystyrene tile to keep mooisture and warmth in and light out. Heat is not essential. Set a mousetrap! Mice love the seeds but you can also soak the seeds in paraffin overnight to make them unpalatable or leave a paraffin soaked rag scrumpled around the pots. Soaking in seaweed fertiliser is said to have the same effect. Check for germination every day and once the seedlings appear, keep them cool at about 5C to promote root growth, not stem growth. A cold frame, cool greenhouse or windowsill are fine but she says she used to use a couple of straw bales with an old window over the top. She says that they don't need protection from the cold and that bottom heat won't help them but will hinder them. Pinch out the leader when there are three or four pairs of leaves. Water them and pinch out any spindly new tips. As soon as white roots are visible in the bottom of the pot, move the plant to a one size bigger pot and water them in. Don't let them get pot bound. Pot them on in pairs, as sown. Two plants will cover any upright. Use a good compost to pot them on. A slim, deep 1-litre pot is ideal. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/ |
Choosing and growing sweetpeas
"Sacha" wrote in message ... Sarah Raven wrote an article on just this on 18 November in the Daily Telegraph. She trialled 17 varieties for smell, flowering and length of stem. Her favourite 10 are Matucana without which she says she would be 'bereft'; Midnight Painted Lady, Zorij Rose, Karen Louise, Aniversary, Black Knight, Gypsy Queen, Lord Nelson, Wiltshire Ripple. In the 'how to grow' section she says to sow at any time in autumn, two seeds to a pot, using root trainers. Use multi purpose compost and push the seeds about 1" below the surface. She doesn't soak the seed and she reckons they'll germinate in a week or two. Cover the pots with newspaper or a polystyrene tile to keep mooisture and warmth in and light out. Heat is not essential. Set a mousetrap! Mice love the seeds but you can also soak the seeds in paraffin overnight to make them unpalatable or leave a paraffin soaked rag scrumpled around the pots. Soaking in seaweed fertiliser is said to have the same effect. Check for germination every day and once the seedlings appear, keep them cool at about 5C to promote root growth, not stem growth. A cold frame, cool greenhouse or windowsill are fine but she says she used to use a couple of straw bales with an old window over the top. She says that they don't need protection from the cold and that bottom heat won't help them but will hinder them. Pinch out the leader when there are three or four pairs of leaves. Water them and pinch out any spindly new tips. As soon as white roots are visible in the bottom of the pot, move the plant to a one size bigger pot and water them in. Don't let them get pot bound. Pot them on in pairs, as sown. Two plants will cover any upright. Use a good compost to pot them on. A slim, deep 1-litre pot is ideal. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/ Went on an HPS garden visit summer just gone and Matucana was growing in large clumps, very impressed, it both looked and smelt wonderful. -- Charlie, gardening in Cornwall. http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and Lapageria rosea |
Choosing and growing sweetpeas
In article , Sacha
writes She doesn't soak the seed and she reckons they'll germinate in a week or two. Two sweet pea growers and judges told us at a recent gardening club meeting that it was the variety that made them hard to germinate, some being very easy and some being blinking slow!! They directed us to Matthewman and Ron Parslow's sweet peas for fragrance. Another speaker told us to put a handful of garden soil in the pot with the compost but I have no idea why! Lord Nelson sweet peas I find very disappointing with a quick decline to mildew if the weather is dry. Painted lady was okay but not very long stalks. This is why they told us to cut off the tendrils and tie in to a pole. The tendrils will make the stems curl, but being tied kept them as straight and as tall as possible. Janet -- Janet Tweedy Dalmatian Telegraph http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk |
Choosing and growing sweetpeas
snip
The definitive book on sweetpeas is : 'Sweetpeas, growing and showing' by the undisputed master of sweetpeas, the late Bernard R. Jones. he had more knowledge of sweetpeas in his little finger than all the current gurus put together. I think it is out of print but some libraries may still have a copy and possibly obtainable from Amazon. I remember being away during the coldest spell for decades (mid seventies) when the temperature was something like -25 and I never lost a single plant out of several hundred growing in 5" clay pots in an open frame. Its not the cold that will damage them but a sudden thawing out particularly when the top growth thaws out while the roots are still frozen. |
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