Sweet Peas

Nature 3 Minutes

The colorful and fragrant sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is a favorite plant for informal cottage gardens and is easy to grow. It is most often seen trained up trellises or fences, but sweet peas grow beautifully in pots where it spills over the sides. They are climbing plants that bear profuse clusters of spring and early summer flowers in a wide variety of colors, including red, pink, blue, white, and lavender. Sweet pea flowers resemble fringed butterflies, while their sturdy stems appear to be folded. Plant your sweet peas in late winter or early spring. Sweet peas provide beautiful color in garden spaces, but beware because they are toxic to humans and pets.

About Sweet Pea Flowers


Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), is a climbing annual member of the legume genus. Originating in the southwest of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean, sweet pea has been cultivated for use in gardens since the 17th century.3 It reached its modern form under the work of Scottish nurseryman Henry Eckford, who developed dozens of cultivars during the late 1800s.

Sweet Pea Care

Sweet peas lend a cottage feel to gardens. For many of us, fast-growing sweet peas are an instant nostalgic reminder of the beautiful, rambunctious old-fashioned gardens. These vintage varieties were selected for their vibrant colors and intense fragrance. Modern sweet pea cultivars come in almost every color except yellow, but not all of the newer sweet pea varieties are fragrant. The mature size will depend on the variety you choose to grow, but expect the vines to stretch to at least 6 to 8 feet tall. They are often grown on bamboo tripods, but typically they are grown along a trellis or fence for support.

Planting and Soil

Plant sweet pea in the late winter and early spring. Sow three seeds together about a foot between groups of seeds. Plant sweet pea seeds about 1 inch down in the soil. For better blooms, work compost into the soil about six weeks before planting the seeds. Compost will also improve poor soil.

Sweet peas prefer rich but well-drained soil. A slightly alkaline soil pH (about 7.5) is ideal.

Light

Sweet peas thrive in full sun, although in warmer climates they do well in a location that receives a bit of shade in the heat of the afternoon.

Water

Sweet peas need weekly watering, to keep the soil moist during the growing season. Check the soil by placing your finger an inch into the soil. If it’s moist, there’s no need to water the plant but if it’s dry, it’s time to give the plant a drink.

Temperature and Humidity

Because sweet peas originated in the Mediterranean, they can handle a rare chill but do best if they’re planted after the last frost and in warmer temperatures in USDA zones 3-8. Sweet pea seedlings can tolerate a light frost, but the plants dislike extremely hot temperatures. Plant early to enjoy the blooms before they wither in the heat.

Fertilizer

During the growing season, apply fertilizer for sweet peas monthly. Choose a fertilizer high in potassium, such as a tomato fertilizer. Adding a bit of blood meal to the soil is thought to help keep the stems long and suitable for cutting.

Types of Sweet Peas

‘Old fashioned’:Sweet peas labeled old fashioned should be very fragrant.

Spencer cultivars:These are especially hardy vines with striking coloring, but not all of them are particularly fragrant.

‘Bijou Group’: This is a sweetly scented dwarf variety suitable for containers.

Pruning

To increase branching, which produces more flowering stems, pinch the growing tips back 1 inch when the plant reaches 4 inches tall.3 The more you cut the flowers, the more blooms you should get, so don’t hesitate to bring some bouquets indoors. Deadhead the spent flowers to encourage continued blooming. For Lathyrus odoratus annuals, you do not need to do anything to the plant when sweet peas have finished flowering.

How to Grow Sweet Pea From Seed

Sweet peas are usually direct sown. To assist germination, seeds should be scarified by nicking and/or soaking in water for several hours to soften the seed coating.4

Seed can be started outdoors, as soon as the ground has warmed to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and is not too wet. In the South, you may have better luck seeding sweet peas in the fall to grow into winter.

You can get a jump start on the season by starting seed indoors, about four to five weeks before your last frost date. They will be easier to transplant if you start them in peat pots. When you are ready to transplant, pinch any flowers or buds off that may have formed, which will encourage root development. They like cool soil, so a thick layer of mulch around the plants may help sweet peas thrive.

When the plants reach about 4 inches tall in the garden, pinch the seedlings to encourage strong side shoots.3 Sweet pea vines have tendrils and will attach themselves to almost any type of support that has meshing or strings.

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Published by pat frederick

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174 thoughts on “Sweet Peas”

  1. Troublemaker10
    April 25, 2023 1:27 pm

    Very interesting! Wasn’t expecting this….

    ******

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump

    I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them. When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the “questions,” why subject yourself to being libeled and abused? Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!

    Apr 25, 2023

    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110260496156494542

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Very long, but informative, article….

    “Are You a Domestic Terrorist? TSA Might Say Yes”
    By Sonya Hightower-LaBosco -April 25, 2023
    EXCERPT: “Early last year, a wife and mother of two children booked an airline ticket to New York for a family funeral. Innocent enough, right? Apparently not. Her husband (we will call him Bill,) a 20-plus-year Federal Air Marshal Service veteran, went to work a few days before his wife left and noticed something astonishing. He logged on to his Federal Air Marshal Service Operations computer system, and there it was, his wife’s name, and underneath her name, it read “Domestic Terrorist.”

    Once the initial shock wore off, he ran to his supervisors and asked them how in the world this could’ve happened; their response was, “You can’t tell her, and you have to let it work itself out.” “What does that mean?” he asked—he got the same response. Bill then realized that since his wife was labeled a domestic terrorist that meant whenever she traveled, there would be teams of highly trained air marshals following her and their children’s every move in the airport and on the plane—documenting what they wore, what she said, attempting to eavesdrop on her conversations, and writing an internal report documenting everything. And it was his job to assign the Air Marshal teams to this special mission to follow his wife to New York and back home.

    It Gets Worse — This was shocking for many reasons. First, Bill’s wife had never been charged with any crime or questioned by law enforcement agencies about being a terrorist. Second, Bill holds a Top-Secret Security Clearance with the Federal Air Marshals, and apparently, he lives with a terrorist. This should have sparked an immediate investigation by the agency into what he and his TSA-designated terrorist wife were up to, yet the agency didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

    Right after his conversation with Air Marshal leadership, Bill returned to his job, which granted him access to very sensitive government databases. This fact alone suggests the label given to his wife is false; why wouldn’t the agency seem to care? This situation meets the very definition of an insider threat.

    Lastly, the TSA paperwork noted that Bill’s wife broke into the United States Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. Bill was in disbelief. His wife had been in D.C. on January 6th; however, she was nowhere near the Capitol building and could prove it with her GPS locations, Uber, and hotel receipts. She was at a hotel several miles from the Capitol building. Bill then called the Air Marshal National Council (AMNC) and asked for help. We immediately contacted Congress with Bill’s concerns, as demonstrated in the letter below.
    —————
    AMNC President Dave Londo and Executive Director Sonya Hightower-LaBosco were not shocked. They informed Bill that shortly after January 6th, a supervisor within the Air Marshal Incident Coordination Section sent the FBI all the names of every person who flew into or out of Washington D.C. in the days leading up to and after the Capitol incident.

    It didn’t matter if they had been anywhere near the Capitol. They further advised that it was their belief that this same supervisor made the decision to establish a list with these people’s names, as it was this unit’s job to develop special missions for the agency.

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) having the authority to label anyone a terrorist presents a host of issues. TSA is an administrative agency, not a law enforcement agency; it has no investigative authority. Bill’s wife contacted the FBI. They said she had never been under any investigation. If this is the case, how does TSA not only label someone a terrorist but also have someone within the TSA, without any research or follow-up, manipulate a national security database and enter false information that Bill’s wife had broken into the Capitol?

    Those actions suggest this is not mere incompetence but a nefarious intentional act that can only have a political purpose. If TSA decided to make a list of folks who traveled to D.C. and label them terrorists, that would be a huge overstep of authority; however, to take the extra step of falsely writing that this person committed a criminal act without evidence whatsoever—that is horrifying.

    The AMNC believes that hundreds, if not thousands, of entirely innocent Americans may be falsely labeled as terrorists by the TSA.”

    https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/04/25/are-you-a-domestic-terrorist-tsa-might-say-yes/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. well sure…once they install the digital id…it will connect to this list and all of these people’s accounts will be frozen. this must be in place before the ids go into effect…

      Liked by 1 person


  5. London, UK — A pod of the London Eye that has been transformed into a miniature version of Westminster Abbey before the coronation of King Charles III. Visitors to the capsule will have the chance to sit on the pod’s coronation chair and hold replicas of the crown jewels
    Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

    Liked by 1 person

    2. fanbeav
      April 25, 2023 4:47 pm

      Biden said in 2021, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”

      After fooling the public with “vaccine” as a marketing term, the FDA now says, “Vaccines do not require demonstration of the prevention of infection or transmission.”https://t.co/MI5S89Y2Xv

      — The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) April 25, 2023

      Liked by 1 person

  6. A massive supercell thunderstorm captured over the McClain County Fairgrounds & Expo in Purcell, Oklahoma last week. Photo credit to Scott Roylance and first posted by J Heath Lollar…

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Oh, Pat…..🙁😖😞😢😢😢😧😧

    Marica
    April 25, 2023 at 5:39 pm Edit
    +++++++++++News on my brother, Dave….Hospice is being brought in…The Drs have said He has 2 weeks to 2 months…We are Devastated…I went and picked up mom….+++++++++++

    Praying…..for a miracle…..

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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