Plant Profile: Sweet Peas

Beautiful bunch of Sweet Peas

Something new…. a blog post each month dedicated to a different cut flower. This month: Sweet Peas!

Sweet peas, or in Latin Lathyrus odoratus, are the quintessential cottage garden flower. They are evocative of summers spent with grandparents picking the delicate blooms and they are one of my favourite flowers to grow.

Sweet peas are in the pea family unsurprisingly, however they are not edible. Their flowers and seeds should not be eaten as they are toxic; best not placed on your wedding cake. However, they are beautiful in small bud vases in mid summer and they can really fill a space with their stunning fragrance.

They are hardy annuals and so need to be grown from seed, fresh each year. We sow a batch in autumn and a batch in late winter. This allows us to have a longer stretch of their pretty flowers.

They come in a selection of colours from purple, pinks, red and white, but not quite yellow or true blue, although there are some lilacs which come close.

Some are more scented than others and this is dependant on variety. Old fashioned or Grandiflora varieties are best for the most intense fragrance and we have grown varities specifically for this purpose. But we also grow Spencer Types for their extra long stem length, making them better suited for bouquets.

To keep sweet peas flowering, you need to keep deadheading. Sometimes this means going out twice a day to remove the spent blooms. But they will keep repaying you, with more beauty and fragrance.

It’s not too late to sow some seeds if you have some tall pots and good quality compost. Sweet peas are hardy and don’t need heat to germinate. We don’t bother soaking our seeds either. You could be picking handfuls of flowers come June if you get some seed in compost now.

Alternatively get in touch with us and we can provide your event this summer with beauty and fragrance from our Devon grown Sweet Peas.