Every garden has room for sweet peas
One of the joys of having sweet peas in the garden is the profusion of blooms available for cutting, whether these are cordon grown plants or simply a bush in the garden. Cut the blooms and the plant will reward you by producing more. The speed with which new blooms develop is such that no concerns need be entertained about how long they last once cut. When we buy flowers from the florist, we want them to last because we have parted with hard earned cash to acquire them.
But with your own sweet peas in the garden, you can have fresh blooms every day if you want to.
A few sweet peas in a room will quickly fill it with the most delicious scent. There is also the choice of a very wide range of colours available; all sorts of different shades and hues so that the serious flower arranger can find a sweet pea to match most of their well planned creations.
And here's a word for the other species of Lathyrus, those cousins of the sweet pea of some 160 species. For the sweet pea, in all its different forms and colours, is only one species and there are many more to explore. Lathyrus species have a glorious range of colours, wider even than sweet peas and including all the primary colours.
These miniature gems mostly have smaller flowers than sweet peas and are delightful for miniature and petite arrangements.

History
The sweet pea is a climbing annual native to Sicily and southern Italy. Its ancestry can be traced back to the 17th century when it's richly coloured but relatively small flowers possessed a powerful and attractive fragrance. These qualities were enough to ensure its survival after it reached these shores, courtesy of a Sicilian monk, Franciscus Cupani, who sent seeds to Dr. Robert Uvedale, a schoolmaster of Enfield, in 1699. Cupani clearly considered the plant to be of some importance, because he also sent seed to Caspar Commelin in Amsterdam at the same time.
Although the seed sent by Cupani was of a purple/maroon bicolour, early writings refer to a pure white variety and to a pink/white bicolour, citing Ceylon as a possible source. Recent research however, has proved that the bicolour now known by such names as "Cupani" or "Cupani Original", is the most primitive form and is therefore the original wild species. South American varieties such as "Quito" and "Matucana" appear to be derived from cultivated material and probably date from the 1920s.
The next crucial date in the sweet pea chronicles of fame was 1911, when Tom Jones of Ruabon introduced the cordon system of culture. To this day, this technique is used to produce blooms of the very highest quality, and is of sufficient importance to merit a brief description.
The young seedling sweet pea, when it has formed several true leaves, has its top pinched out to induce branching. Of the resultant side shoots, one strong one from near the base of the plant is retained, and all other growth is cut away. This shoot is encouraged to grow as a single stem with all its side shoots being removed as they form. The tendrils are also removed to prevent them fastening onto the flower stems, which necessitates supporting the plant by tying it onto a cane. This method of training severely restricts the number of flower stems produced by each plant, with an equivalent increase in the quality.

Planting
Seeds can be sown in mid-spring for planting out in May, to flower in midsummer. Alternatively, or even additionally, seeds sown in late autumn and planted out in spring will flower earlier and so extend the flowering peak.
Sweet peas support themselves by twining tendrils on their stems that will easily catch onto string or netting. As the normal growth is only to about 2m (6ft), they look very effective when grown on canes or sticks arranged as an obelisk, either in pots or in garden borders.
They make ideal cut flowers but choose carefully as the scent can be variable. Flowers should be cut frequently and all faded flowers removed regularly to encourage more buds to form.

What to do
Choose a sunny spot and hammer two stakes into the ground to make a row.
Attach parallel wires between the posts, one at the bottom and one further up. Push canes into the soil every 22cm (9in) and secure to the wires.
Plant sweet peas in front of each cane.
Let plants grow to 30cm (12in) and then select the strongest shoot and remove the rest.
Tie shoot to cane and regularly pinch off side shoots and tendrils.
When plants have reached the top of canes, untie and lay stems on the ground.
Re-tie stems to a cane further along the row, so the tip of the plant reaches about 30cm (12in) up its new cane. This way you will create the criss-cross network of stems and build up your screen.
Tip: Sweet peas are easy to grow from seed, but you can buy ready-grown young plants.

Which variety?
Any variety can be used, so work with your favourite colour scheme to create a screen that fits with your garden.
Sweet peas need support and a screen is a great way of exploiting their natural growing habit while introducing height, colour and scent in one season. Create a screen to separate your vegetable patch or add privacy to a seating area.
Once you've made your screen, dig a planting hole in front of each cane, making it slightly wider and deeper than the root ball of the plant. Allow plants to grow for four weeks until they are about 30cm (12in) tall, then select the best shoot and remove the rest. Tie it to the cane and regularly pinch of side shoots and tendrils.
Make sure you wipe your knife or secateurs between cutting each plant to prevent diseases from spreading. Secure the sweet pea to its cane with string, garden twine or special sweet pea rings.
When the sweet peas have grown too tall for their supporting canes, untie all of them and lay the stems carefully on the ground, taking care not to snap the brittle stems. Next, re-tie stems to a cane further along the row, so the tip of the plant reaches about 30cm (12in) up its new cane. Doing this will allow stems to grow longer and guarantee more flowers.

Varieties to try
'Orange Crush' - very bright flowers
'Midnight' - deep maroon
'Gwendoline' - light centre with pink edges
'Oxford Blue' - very strongly scented, navy blue
'Castle of Mey' - creamy white, frilly blooms




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