Sweet Peas in Abundance

After a couple years of trying to grow sweet peas unsuccessfully, I have finally succeeded!!

The first two years I planted the sweet peas at the end of March without fertilizer, and even though I watered them, they did not produce super healthy plants, and were only a couple feet high.

This year, I discovered that sweet peas can be grown in Virginia, but they need to be planted in February. The cooler weather of March and April allows them to grow without being fried by the scorching Virginia sun. Their progress was a little slow at first, but then I fertilized them with fish emulsion and they exploded with lush growth, and I have been harvesting blooms every couple days.

An additional bonus that comes with the sweet peas is that they have an awesome fragrance that makes an entire bouquet smell heavenly, even if there are only a few stems of sweet peas in it. I have been slipping in a couple blossoms into almost every arrangement I have made since the sweet peas started blooming.

I have fallen in love with sweet peas, and I will definitely be planting more next year in other colors. I loved the colors that I bought from Floret, the pastel pinks and the whites are so pretty. I will be saving my own seeds of the colors I am currently growing, so that I will have even more sweet peas to plant next year!