Grandma's Gardens #9: Sweet Pea

Such a pretty plant!
Love the color.
While I growing up, my mother always had a wall of sweet peas!
I just love them, just can’t seem to be able to grow them!

Thanks for sharing!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

oh how wonderful.
Isn’t it exciting to see that first bloom?? !!!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Oh My that is a prettty color

Is this the perennial one??

MY mother always had them and my MIL

I can’t get them to germinate half the time and they certainly won’t with direct sowing

If I am lucky to get one going at all, they die on me

Same as morning glories

Yes I know 2 of the easist I hear but tough for me

what is the secret to growing Sweet peas? My soil is quite acid, Is this the cause??

I’d sure love to grow some next year

-- NS Zone 5B 200 KM East of Halifax cheers Bunting------Having a place to go – is a home. Having someone to love – is a family.

I was going to ask the same question, if they were perennial or not. Actually, the more I look at it, I think it may be an annual, only because the colour is so intense. ( You didn’t modify the colour did you? LOL ) The perennials tend to be more washed out in colour.

My dad had a fence full of them. They made for good picking flowers.

Now I have them. Somehow they got planted next to a climibing rose, which is a lame rose anyway, but that’s another story. The perennial ones keep coming back and getting more and more shoots, here in sunny / wet / sunny / wet southern Ontario.

-- jroot

Thank you everyone!!!

To be honest I am not sure if it is a perennial or annual. I initially thought annual, but my SIL says no, she has them all along her fence line and they keep coming back year after year. I am hoping for perennial … Shawn says his mom’s keep coming back and they are originally from her garden. Guess time will tell the tale.

As far as soil goes … this bed was filled with good rich dirt last summer, as we dug out what seemed lika a ton of rock and plastic from this bed (in my yard concrete, rock and plastic are so invasive!!! hahahaha) This bed gets lots of sun and I water every other day (when it is not raining). It likes to be moist, as it will wilt if too dry. I also mulched that bed.

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

I do believe they re-seed themselves! And they are quite hardy: my mother lives in zone 3 and has had them for years!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

That is so wonderful to hear “E” ...

AND, I took hubby outside to show him the two flowers and all the buds. Decided to stick my nose into one flower … OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an AWESOME smell … so delicate, so sweet!!! My patio is going to smell awesome in the coming days/weeks!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

I know they are self-seeding, I believe they are technically annuals, but they seed themselves so prolifically that they might as well be perennials.

-- the day you quit learning is the day you quit living.

I put sweet-pea in my front flowerbed about hmmm 15 years ago and it still comes up each year growing strong!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

There was an established sweet pea garden at my last place.It got too invasive though and I dug most of it up.This one had tubers.They went really deep and I had a heck of a time trying to tame them.They were a dark pink.
Love the colours of yours GramT.Hope yours is perennial because they really make a nice showing.And the smell….gotta love em.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Well wouldn’t mind them being a little invasive around this fence line … guess I have something to wait for come spring … whether they make it or not … :-)

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

Lovely colour…........we have a perennial sweet pea in our old garden and that is very invasive….......I think maybe the birds have a hand in spreading it as it has turned up in some unusual places.
I am not sure if I want to bring any to the new garden.

-- Derbyshire------- English Countryside

mine always die

always nice to see some one with the majic touch

-- Central northish Ontario

Thanks Greenthumb!!

And yah, Springwood, the color is just lovely. Really makes that ugly fence better … :-)

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b