Oh sweet pea!Won't you come to me!!!

L bough a package that said pastel colors,there blooming and there all the same color.

Hmmm...they must have forgotten to mix the other colors in!!

Guy who filled the seed package must have been colored blind!!!LOL
Cool here this am,almost need a sweater on!!!LOL

Well they ARE pastel .. maybe the "s" was a typo? Lol.

X

LOL, I was wanting colors not color!!!LOL

OK people...please be aware that I'm FROST FREE over here! I have no idea if the fall sowing would work on colder climates! Over here in California, the saying is "fall is our spring" because fall is the best time to sow and plant for us. Spring goes by way to fast and June is practically too hot and dry to sow/plant anything.

Also, I'm not sure I said that but I have directly sowed them in different microclimates in the garden. The ones in full sun came up much earlier, but they're done already. The ones in light shade came later but are still totally in bloom (although already suffering from the heat).

Another word of advice: GET THE HEIRLOOM ONES! The heirloom ones are the really fragrant ones. HUMMM! : )

How hot does it get there?
Son was stationed there 20 yrs ago when in the marines,lived about block from the ocean and said the the temps were always pretty mild,even in the winter he wore t-shirts and shorts,whiles the locals were wearing sweaters and jackets.

It's okay, Rob, I was basing my fall-sowing plan on Xer... from SC, not you practically-tropical folks!

Lol, I WISH we were "practically tropical"! We'd need wayyyyyy more rain to qualify for that!

Yes, our temps are pretty mild, I would say mid 80's in summer and mid 50's in winter...

Hooray!
Different color flower finally!!!!

That's a pretty one - it almost looks like on called America .. are you going to save seeds?

X

Well these were supposed to be a hybrid according to the package,and I thought they would reseed themselves,and if they do will they come back like these or much more like there parents?

They will most likely be crosses .. usually very pretty.

X

I can live with that!
Thanks

Maybe you'd like to swap some seeds with me if you are up to harvesting them.

X

Ok,I'll get back with you when I get some!

It's not much of a show, but it's a miracle for me! Finally some blooms on "Elegant Ladies". And it is HOT here right now: 96 today.

Looking good!
Looks like you have them in some shade to keep them from frying!
Look at all those day lilies too!!!!

So how'd you do on your sweet pea harvest?

X

No peas in the pods!!!!
And still had blooms this week!
Might be because they are hybrids,I just don/t know why the pods are empty!

Wow .. that is strange.

X

Man I loved growing sweet peas in the UK, but they just fry here by the end of May! Still trying though.

going out on a limb here... what is a good fall climber? growing in a container?? outside!!

dirtygirl: i would try Black eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia). It blooms beginning mid summer into fall. And I found it surprising that it reseeded around a bit. It's blooming now from last year. That said, I have not tried it in a container. There are several varieties though: I grew Blushing Susie.

For your zone you'd probably want something perennial. Annuals tend to wind down when nights get longer and the color and intensity of the light starts changing all of which is caused by the angle of the sun.

X

Good that this thread was bumped up...thinking about planting some sweet peas for fall - since I can't seem to remember for spring...ugh

I am going to try this fall. I did get some blooms as I posted earlier, but not much. I know I don't have much chance down here, but maybe one more shot with the fall planting is worth it.

Hi all! I recommend fall planting, it works for me!

I had not thought about planting in the fall, I think it could work very well here.
Thanks for the idea!

Well, leave it to tropicman to have a forum going! YAY!

Well anyway just been sorting through my sweet pea seeds.. looks like I have a few varieties...

1) NOID
2) 'Sugar 'n' Spice'
3)'Bouquet blend'
4) NOID
5) North Shore
6) Old Spice
7) a perennial variety
8) Spencer
9) Captian of the Blues

From what the packs tell me, sow indoors 1/19! Well todays my lucky day... question is which will be my lucky Pea?

Well, looks like Spencer, North Shore, Captain of the Blues and Old Spice are going to be my first 2010 victims....

Im soaking the seed overnite. Fingers crossed, these grow!!!

Hmmm .. thanks for the reminder .. I need to start mine! I usually start them in late fall but never seemed to find the time. Need some suggestions .. I am going to get them to grow up 5 posts of a split rail fence.

I've chosen 6 cultivars in case one doesnt germinate.

What order would you put them in and why?

Here are the choices.

X

Most fragrant ones ,as close to the house as possible,would be what I'd do!

Since I do not know what the planting area actually looks like Im gonna go with what tropicman said! Coming out of the home into a heavenly scent is a grand idea. That would be an awesome effect.

I adore the lighter blues over the pinks and that dark lavender/purple is stunning! So if I came to your garden I would be begging for a bouquet of the purple and the lighter ones on the bottom even though all the colors mixed up would be stunning!!

If I had to post them in order of color for design though, I would go from meduim pink, darker pink, darkest pink, purple, then the darker light blue to the lightest light blue . And lose that salmonish pink on the right upper corner since you said 5.

Now depending on effect if you want to arrange the warmer colors as the first thing you see coming out of the home that will give a presentation of colors getting cooler as you go away. If you want the oppisite effect, turn it around!

If you have trees or other plants in your garden perhaps I would continue arranging in the order of the hues from darker to light giving the wave effect into the rest of the garden. That is if it were possible.
For example, say you have a pink magnolia ground nearby.. then I would try to incorporate the magnolia in the hues arrangement.

Color and design is all in eyeappeal .. the colors play games with our minds. The warmer the colors sometimes can make people feel that warm fuzzy feeling, while the cooler colors have the oppisite effect when you work with hues. Reds have a tendency to be hot colors, while the blue are colder and the whiter even more fridged on a temperature scale!

Here is where they are going ..

LOL! That looks like my lane! 'cept I got three rails!
Near house
light pink
darke pink
purple
dark light blue
Light lite blue
at end of lane!

(Hope the salmon goes back to sea!!!) Course you could swap the derned thang if it decides to germ!!

Ok....
Sweet Peas are the best fragrance ever. Period. They are also the fussiest fussbudgets on the weather that I have ever grown!
In 2007, sow right before the last snow yeilded a nice crop of rather short lived flowers. The fragrance was the best!!!
Last year (2009) I tried growing Cupani's, Elegant Ladies, and Floral Tribute. The Cupani's flowered nicely, but succomed to the heat. The Elegant Ladies did not even germ. And the Floral Tribute flowered a tiny bit (less than 2 weeks of light blooming).
Maybe I should sow in the Fall? Or sow in the middle of winter? Or is there some "trick" to get them to flower longer than 1 month? Or is this flower time "normal"?

~Daniel

P.S. What really astonishes me is the fact that Sweet Peas grow in the wild 'round here and it seems that they never want to quit flowering!

Well mine will be going into some poor dirt...so dont know what is gonna happen. I did pea peas in the garden one year, no problem, but this is a first for floral peas.

I have dicholors (sp)lab lab
wild.. it goes all summer..

Im holding off on the Sugar and Spice for in my baskets...gonna wait a little bit

Word to the wise,I wasn't thinking ahead!
Planting my sweet peas close to another fragrant plant,which was the swamp butterfly milkweed with a vanilla strong fragrance,they kind of clashed,not really the word I need to describe how the milkweed took away the fragrance from the sweet peas.
Then the plumeria was next to both of them which over ran both of the other fragrances.

DMGardener...but if your wild sweet peas are like mine, they have no smell to them? They sure are pretty though!