Sweet peas

[gradus]

Having just sown sweet peas in pots from seeds bought in the garden centre, I found pots of sweet pea plants - about 10 in a pot - in Asda this morning at 3 for £5 and I wondered why I had bothered, not that it will put me off as seed sowing is one of the highlights of my gardening year.

[oddoneout]

Having just sown sweet peas in pots from seeds bought in the garden centre, I found pots of sweet pea plants - about 10 in a pot - in Asda this morning at 3 for £5 and I wondered why I had bothered, not that it will put me off as seed sowing is one of the highlights of my gardening year.

You could ask the same question of anything really - cheese, wine, clothes... Generic versions will serve the purpose, and cost less, but choosing your own goes beyond that and provides elements that aren't so easy to buy. This year I have restocked my sweet pea selection, having finally used up existing packets, with varieties that I want for their colour and scent, not just to fill a space. It is more expensive than a mixed packet chucked in with the grocery shopping, but with limited space to grow them I want them to be "right", rather than "that'll do". Then there is the pleasure, as you say, of seed sowing itself, which is also an inherently positive and forward looking activity as a useful counterpart to what is happening around us.

[gurnemanz]

I used to grow annual sweet peas but a few years ago some perennial sweet peas appeared - unsown by me. They are not fragrant and do not have the colour variety of the annuals - mostly white, pink or deep mauvish - but I find them nonetheless very rewarding and much less effort. They work as cut flowers and indeed need to be cut to discourage seed formation. They come back reliably and have sprung up self-seeded in several spots around the garden. They work well growing up shrubs.

[oddoneout]

I used to grow annual sweet peas but a few years ago some perennial sweet peas appeared - unsown by me. They are not fragrant and do not have the colour variety of the annuals - mostly white, pink or deep mauvish - but I find them nonetheless very rewarding and much less effort. They work as cut flowers and indeed need to be cut to discourage seed formation. They come back reliably and have sprung up self-seeded in several spots around the garden. They work well growing up shrubs.

It's good to have both I reckon. The perennials are more tolerant of poor conditions -soil or weather - but bunches of fragrant sweet peas to scent the house are one of the pleasures of summer for me. My neighbour planted the pale pink "Pink Pearl" form of perennial pea on her side of the chain link boundary fence and it climbed up to get to the light so I had the benefit of its lovely flowers mixing with the climbers and shrubs on my side. It went very well with a dainty pale blue small flowered clematis called Betty Corning. Although it wasn't dead-headed the pods didn't have any seed in so I wasn't able to collect some to grow my own. I know from past attempts that the white and the pale pink forms are more tricky and the magenta, which I have in a couple of places on the opposite fence, is the dominant strain.

[gurnemanz]

It's good to have both I reckon.

Fair point but I'm inclined to put my rather limited flower-sowing effort into something else. Just sown Rudbeckia and Cosmos. I'll have plenty of Calendula which will come up self-sown.