I am Zone 5 as well and thought I could help. As long as the roots are kept cool, they should be fine with lots of heat. I mulch mine after they are up about 6". Usually the seeds like to go in around May when the soil is still cool but you should still be ok now. Maybe do seeds and get some seedlings as well from your local nursery just in case and plant together. Hope this helps!!

I was wondering that myself. I put in sweet peas a couple weeks ago. It stayed cool for a while and now some are up. I put some of my spare sweet alsyssum around them but I don't know if it will keep their feet cool enough.

I think I will go to the local nursery myself and get some more annuals, a bit taller, to protect them better.

I ordered Sweet Pea seeds and planted them indoors in Jiffy 7 pots. Before planting, I "nicked" them with fingernail clippers and this seemed to cause more of them to sprout than would otherwise have happened. They are now planted in a huge pot (plastic, not clay) It is about 2 feet across the top and almost as deep. Really rich soil in there, and a trellis made of twigs and shaped like a cone. They are growing nicely and are located on the east side of the garden, so that they get a bit of shade later in afternoon. I expect that they will bloom very late summer. I am growing the Cupani, the original 1699 sweet pea and another really old kind because it is the smell that I want most of all. Really a LOT of trouble for a few blooms, but, oh! well.... whoever said gardeners were sensible folk?

Shapiro, that is the perfect set-up for all peas, including sweet peas. The best time to sow the seeds here in PA 5 is the middle of March. Cool, rich soil, not-dry soil.

Some of my sweet peas died from the heat, but most survived and are starting to bloom now. :-)

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