I grow "Spencer Sweet Peas", I sow them in September ,overwinter in a
coldframe, then plant out in spring.
My problem is this, when they first start to flower the stems are nice and
long, ideal for cutting but after a week or so the stems start getting
really short, can anyone advise me, I would be grateful for any help
TIA Chris

Christine Rowe wrote:
I grow "Spencer Sweet Peas", I sow them in September ,overwinter in a
coldframe, then plant out in spring.
My problem is this, when they first start to flower the stems are nice and
long, ideal for cutting but after a week or so the stems start getting
really short, can anyone advise me, I would be grateful for any help
TIA Chris


If you want long stemmed sweet peas then you need to pinch out the young
plant, then select the strongest shoot and remove all others. Continue
to do this throughout the season so you have a single stemmed plant.
this will produce good long stemmed flowers. The negative side (there
is always one) is there will be far less flowers per plant than otherwise.

Broadback wrote in message
...
Christine Rowe wrote:
I grow "Spencer Sweet Peas", I sow them in September ,overwinter in a
coldframe, then plant out in spring.
My problem is this, when they first start to flower the stems are nice
and
long, ideal for cutting but after a week or so the stems start getting
really short, can anyone advise me, I would be grateful for any help
TIA Chris


If you want long stemmed sweet peas then you need to pinch out the young
plant, then select the strongest shoot and remove all others. Continue
to do this throughout the season so you have a single stemmed plant.
this will produce good long stemmed flowers. The negative side (there
is always one) is there will be far less flowers per plant than otherwise.

I've also heard that removing the tendrils is similarly successful. This
would have the advantage of keeping the original quantity of flowers. No
doubt, if I'm wrong, someone will kindly correct me.

Spider