Sweet peas are a perfect addition to any garden, providing beauty and a blissful fragrance. These heirloom flowers are easy to grow and come in a variety of vibrant colors.
Choosing Your Sweet Pea Variety
Sweet peas come in many colors, including pink, purple, blue, and cream. Some are climbing vines while others are low-growing, suitable for containers.
Planting Your Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are cool-weather plants. In warm climates, plant them in the fall, while in cold climates, plant them early in the spring. Soak seeds overnight before planting for better germination.
Caring for Your Sweet Peas
Provide moderate water, use balanced fertilizers like Ultra Bloom 0-10-10, and support climbing varieties with a trellis.
Shop Sweet Pea Seeds
Harvesting and Enjoying Sweet Peas
Regularly cutting flowers encourages more blooms. Keep plants healthy by removing spent flowers and managing pests like thrips.
Grow the next flowers from seed
Use our flower seed growing guide to plan sowing time, light, spacing, and transplanting for annual and perennial flowers. When you are ready to choose varieties, browse flower seeds for color, cutting gardens, pollinator plantings, and season-long bloom.
How to grow sweet peas from seed
Sweet peas are cool-season flowering vines, not edible garden peas. Choose a site with strong light, good air movement, and a trellis or netting installed before vines begin to climb. In mild-winter regions, gardeners often sow in fall for early spring flowers. In colder regions, sow in late winter or early spring as soon as the soil can be worked, or start indoors in deep cells a few weeks before transplanting.
Sowing sweet pea seed
Use fresh seed and follow packet instructions for any pre-soaking recommendation. Sow into well-drained mix or a prepared garden row, cover at the packet depth, and keep evenly moist rather than saturated. Indoor seedlings need bright light and cool conditions. Harden them off gradually before planting outside so stems and leaves adjust to sun, wind, and temperature changes.
Spacing, support, and care
Set plants far enough apart for airflow and guide young tendrils toward the support. Keep roots cool with compost or a light mulch once the soil is moist and plants are established. Water at the base when rainfall is insufficient. Excess nitrogen encourages vines and leaves at the expense of flowers, so base amendments on soil conditions rather than feeding automatically.
Cutting flowers and extending bloom
Cut stems frequently when several buds show color, using clean snips and leaving enough foliage for continued growth. Regular cutting and deadheading direct energy away from seed production and can extend the display while weather remains cool. Flower production usually slows when sustained heat arrives. Remove declining vines and compost healthy material; discard diseased material according to local guidance.
Sweet pea questions
Are sweet peas edible? No. Ornamental sweet peas should not be eaten. Why are the vines not flowering? Common causes include warm weather, too much nitrogen, inadequate light, or delayed sowing. Can they grow in containers? Yes, if the container is deep, well drained, consistently watered, and paired with a sturdy support.
Planning next year's display
Note which sowing date produced the longest stems and earliest flowers. If saving seed from open-pollinated plants, allow selected pods to mature fully and dry them under cover before storage. Keep ornamental sweet pea seed clearly labeled and away from food seed because the plant is not edible. Rotate the planting area when disease has been a recurring problem, and begin with clean supports and fresh seed.
2 comments
Siacri6, sow bugs or pill bugs, do mostly eat decaying material, but they can also eat other living plants. You can use something like Sluggo Plus that is labelled to control pill bugs. It will also kill slugs which can be a problem for sweet peas.
i was seeing my peas sprout then they would vanish leaving just the stripped pea seed lying there, rootless and leafless..everybody told me to ignore the pill bugs, “they only eat dead and dying plant matter,..focus on finding the slugs..” So i did..and i found a slug here and another there…tiny whitish slugs…and a couple days ago i noticed a pea seed emerging from the ground with its first leaves as if it were alive..i watched as the harmless little rolly polly hugged the pea and chewed the stem severing the leaves..then he rolled on his back hugging the seed and turned it roots up. crawled around and ate the roots off.. Since then ive observed this 6 more times.. so how do i dispose of these harmless little guys that are in such numbers they erupt from the softer ground like fluid if i disturb the areas where they dwell.. More damage than any aphid infestation has ever caused me.. help!!