How to Grow Sweet Peas from Seed • Cut Flowers

Hey guys. With everything going on in the world, I want you to relax and enjoy today's episode, which is about growing sweet peas from seed. I've made it extra relaxing and calm because I know so many of us enjoy the therapeutic effects of gardening. So let's get to it. So I've never grown sweet peas before, but they're very popular in the cut flower market. So when I was picking sweet pea seeds, I chose three varieties in case one did better than the rest. I always think it's a good idea to experiment to see what works best for your area. For example, some will be more heat tolerant than others. So if you watch my seed haul video, which I'll put a link at the top of this video, you'll know I'm a big fan of botanical interest seeds, so it made perfect sense for me to use them. They're my go-to after all. I went with the royal blend, which gets around five to six feet in length, and it's a beautiful assortment of colors. I also went with the knee high blend, which get to be a more manageable two to three feet in length. And finally, I sowed some of these high scent sweet peas for both the color and the description. The most intensely fragrant I started my sweet peas indoors with supplemental lighting sometime in November of last year, but I believe there's still time to start them in the spring. Really, I started them early because I was worried about the heat getting them before they flowered. Oh, and this is what the seeds look like. And you're gonna have to forgive my calloused hands. Um, that's from the gym. Oops. So I had these two open raised beds available from when I ripped out tomatoes, corn, eggplants in the fall. So to prepare it, I added more compost. I added some well rotted manure since I've read that they're quite heavy feeders. I also installed a netting because there's no way that I would just let them kind of sprawl out on the ground. I think it keeps it much nicer, much cleaner, and it's just a much nicer way to display the flowers. So I had a pretty good germination rate, somewhere around 90%. And this is why I love botanical interest seeds, because I always have a very good germination rate. And no, this isn't a sponsored video. Keep in mind, I also had irrigation set up from the tomatoes, even though I don't think I've really used it once for the sweet peas. Mostly I've done overhead watering every few days. It allows me to kind of come in and check for pests or to see how they're doing. I also added a pretty thick layer of mulch at the bottom, which you have to replenish every year because the mulch breaks down into the soil. Aren't they adorable? So it was pretty slow at first, and I knew that was going to be the case because plants take a while to recover from transplanting. I also noticed that instead of one really long vine developing, they branch like crazy from the ground. So that to me was a pretty good sign that they were happy. The great thing about these raised beds is that they're on a pretty steep slope, so that allows both beds to receive light when normally one might block out the other. Ooh, check out those buds! I even added a few anemones in front of the sweet peas, but now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have since it's, well, getting kind of crowded. But you'll see. One of the big dramas in the garden was a mysterious cat that kept relieving itself in my sweet pea beds. I had some repel all granules and sprinkled that around, and of course it did not work. So after much researching, I added another net to the bottom, which totally eliminated the rogue poops. It's not the prettiest solution, but neither is digging out cat poop every morning. Anyway, we have flowers! It was exciting to see the colors as they opened up. It was a mix, so I wasn't really sure what colors I would end up with. And normally, I don't really like mixes, but this was one case that it was actually kind of fun. So as you can tell, the bright red sweet pea, for whatever reason, seemed to take off the fastest, being the first one to flower. And look at this goon, just living his best life. I like the vibrancy of the red, but I definitely wanted to see some of the other colors. So I waited, and waited, and eventually I was rewarded with a sea of deep purples, maroons, and lovely lavenders. So now I had a nice variety of color coming in, and over about a week, they exploded with color. So here comes the fun part, harvesting! Most of the flowers I'm showing you today are a bit old, but they're still fine to harvest. Ideally, you'll want to harvest the flowers when there are still at least two unopened buds at the tip of the stem. As many of you know, sweet peas do not have the longest life in a vase, really just a handful of days. But you can add flower food to extend the life, which of course I don't. And I also know that some add just a drop of bleach into the water for other flowers, so maybe that might work here. But again, I don't do that either. I haven't really shown you all three beds yet. In the first bed, my partner Ray was growing kale, a few ranunculus, and a sea of snapdragons that we got from Johnny's Seeds. Of course, the other two beds had the sweet peas and a few anemones tucked in. We also tried to grow sweet peas in a pot as a comparison. Overall, I don't really recommend it because the sweet peas overtook the trellis very fast. It was hard to kind of maintain the shape of it, and now we pretty much gave up. It also has been slower to bloom. And don't forget the tendrils from the sweet peas will grab onto any plant next to it. Oops. Overall, they just don't seem as healthy, and you have to make sure you're watering the pot often. Sweet peas require consistent moisture, rich soil, and regular feedings, not to mention a strong trellis. All of that is hard to maintain in a small pot. Overall, I only had two problems growing them. I had an ongoing war with some ants that I treated with a powdered insecticide. If there are better solutions out there, please tell me in the comments. I don't like having to use pesticides, but ants can really mess up the roots of plants. I also noticed some yellowing on some of the leaves, and I think that maybe just could be from, you know, the plants being dry or too much competition within the beds. Still, it's relatively minor. All right, finally, let's get the harvest going. So the best time to harvest is early in the morning when the plants are full of moisture, and of course I did this in the afternoon. I'm just not a morning person, okay? I harvested based on color. I know the great thing about regular harvesting is that you're keeping your plant clean by deadheading. This helps the plants push out new flowers faster. Next up was this beautiful lavender, or maybe to you it might be pink. I don't know, you tell me in the comments. Still one of my favorite colors so far, but it hasn't flowered as much as the rest. I got quite a few stems though. Next was this maroon color. I went back and forth in my head whether it was maroon or burgundy. Eventually I settled on maroon, but again, tell me your thoughts on what color that is. So here are the results. I spared the bright red this time because I didn't think it would blend well with these colors. On the color wheel, I would say these are pretty close to being an analogous color scheme. That is right next to each other on the color wheel. I grabbed one of the ceramic vases I've made and started to make the arrangement. So here comes the rough part. I've never really made an arrangement with sweet peas, so please forgive me what's happening here. Eventually I redid it stem by stem, which was obviously a much better method. I feel quite grateful having a steady stream of these beautiful fragrant flowers. Overall they've been one of the most rewarding cut flowers I've grown. I hope you enjoyed this video and that in this moment of craziness it has given you a bit of peace and relaxation because they sure do that for me. I'll see you in the next video.