Plant sweet peas in August for December flowers

August 3, 11:41 AMSF Gardening ExaminerChris McLaughlin

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(Photo by Hay Misty)

Planting annual sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) in August will have you knee-deep in perfumed flowers in the often gloomy month of December. It may sound backwards to suggest planting sweet pea seeds at the end of summer; usually we're planting them at the end of the cold months.

But here in Northern California there's a wide variety of growing zones and micro-climates. This zone is blessed with a long growing season and San Francisco Bay Area gardeners are able to squeeze many crops into the year that seem impossible elsewhere.

These darlings of the Victorian era are heralded for their exquisite scent, vibrant colors, and excellent cutting flower quality. While these beauties are especially suited for the cottage-style or cutting flower garden, gardeners are encourage to try them in their vegetable gardens as they're extremely useful for attracting pollinators the vegetables so desperatly need.

  (Photo by portmanteus)

Lathyrus odorata comes in climbing varieties (the most common) as well as clumping or bush varieties. Climbing sweet peas are usually trained up bamboo stakes, obelisks, or fences. If they aren't offered support by the gardener, they'll use nearby shrubs or anything else they can get their curly tendrils on. When purchasing sweet pea seeds or seedlings pay close attention to the variety as not all of them have their trademark fragrance. Some of the newer plants have been developed for color and growth habit as opposed to scent.

Sweet peas have a long blooming habit and come in single or mixed colors. Colors include blue, pink, lavender, white, and red in the single varieties as well as purple, scarlet, white, rose, blue, salmon, and bi-colors in the mixed varieties. They can be found in nearly every color imaginable except for yellow.

  (Photo by Kthread)

Growing Sweet Peas

Sweet peas can be planted as seeds in situ or as seedlings. When planting the seeds, it's a good idea to soak them for several hours in a small bowl before planting to help break loose the tough outer shell of the seeds. Plant the seeds or seedlings in a row at the base of a fence with netting or some other support about 1 " deep and 1"-2" apart. The seeds and young plants need to have moist soil continuously at this time.

To encourage many side shoots, when they reach about 4"-6" tall, pinch off the top of the plants. Sweet peas like to be planted in full sun and need moderate to heavy watering. The vine varieties may reach up to 6" tall and the bush-type grow anywhere from 8" to 3' tall.