Dear Dave: My own experience is that sweet peas need something that is easier to grip on to than this very smooth metal trellis. I am using one of those cone-shaped trellises made of twigs - I hope you know the kind of thing I mean. Even with that, I have also used the green velcro stuff to get them growing nicely UP instead of across or even down! Right now, June 20, my sweet pea vines are about 15 inches tall. They are doing nicely. In this area, they will not bloom till the weather cools down end of August or early September. The advice I read was to put them in a spot where they will get a bit of shade late in the afternoon. Mine are in a huge tub and I placed the tub on the east side of my garden.

Shapiro, thanks for your reply. As the sweet peas haven't started climbing yet, I will change the trellis.

I think I know that cone shape that you mentioned (have seen it in books), but do you mean a purchased trellis? Or did you make them from twigs?

This reminds me that I have a back wood with lots of fallen twigs, branches, limbs, etc. Maybe a lot of things I don't need to buy....

I'd say you could still use that trellis, Dave, though the addition of more "cross pieces" of wire/string/fishing line would probably be beneficial.

As Shapiro mentioned, you will likely still have to do some 'guiding' to get the vines to go up. In the wild they tend to just scramble all over the place.

Paul, thanks. Just 2 days ago I placed some smalls twigs close to or touching the sweet peas and the ends of the twigs touching the trellis. Now the peas are moving toward that direction. They are fun to watch. :-)

As for the trellis, yea, after watching how tightly the tendrils wrap around it, I think that by adding some twines even vertically following the trellis would work because twines are rougher, so the tendrils can hold on to them stronger.

So much fun.