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Sweet pea flowers

How to sow sweet pea seeds

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Tuesday, 2 March 2021 at 3:30 pm

Find out how to sow sweet peas for your own crop of fragrant cut flowers, in our How-to guide.

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Sweet peas are some of the the most versatile plants you can grow.

Train them up a trellis, pergola or obelisk, or support them with canes in large pots. They bring height and colour to borders and their scented blooms can be used as cut flowers.

Sweet peas dislike root disturbance so grow them in cardboard tubes, growing tubes or coir pots. This will enable you to plant them out in their containers without damaging the roots.

Buy coir pots from Amazon

Follow these easy steps to grow beautiful and fragrant sweet peas from seed.

You Will Need

Sweet pea seeds
Seed compost
Cardboard tubes

Step 1

Sowing sweet peas - sowing the seed

Sow seeds individually into seed compost. Water well and place on a sunny windowsill or in a greenhouse or heated propagator.

Buy seed compost from Amazon

Step 2

Sowing sweet peas - potting on young plants

Water the sweet peas regularly. As they grow, you'll notice roots start to emerge through the sides of the cardboard tubes.

Buy biodegradable growing tubes from Amazon

Step 3

Sowing sweet peas - pinching out the shoots

Pinch out the growing point when seedlings have two-three pairs of leaves, to encourage bushy growth. Harden the plants off before planting out.
See our guide to 10 of the best garden cold frames to protect your young plants from the cold.

Sweet peas are climbing plants and need structures to grow up. Use wires, netting or twine to tie in stems to their supports.

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