Lol! No, I usually know what I am spending, but it is tempting to spend too much once in awhile!

JS, OF COURSE!! Soultan actually has a number of bulbs he is getting for me that I completely forgot about!! Gotta love that CHAD (or is it CRS) feeling, though, makes life FULL of surprises!

hopflower, I used to be able to say that - but no more - (sigh) - LOL

Cindeea, you know you are so right, this is going to be fun! I wonder what they put in the "adventure pack"? And then of course, the surprise I'm giving myself -"Madrid". What is CRS?

C =Can't
R =Remember
S =SH um DooDoo

Yes, jstropic; I guess when the bug bites, he bites hard! I am not quite as fond of Hippeastrums as some others on here; but of course I do like 'em a lot.

However, don't expect the same good behaviour where sweet peas are concerned. Teehee.

Cindeea,
Aha - so it has a name! Now I just have to remember it!

hopflower,
I haven't met one yet but understand some sweet peas have a wonderful fragrance and the colors are certainly incredible.

Ok. You asked for it. Heheh! You will soon learn not to encourage me in this.

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Hopflower,

They are gorgeous - and with stems long enough for cut flower arranging. Great pics!

Lovely colors... and I, too, am happy to see that they have stems long enough for picking... it would be nice to enjoy them indoors in vases!

I have had some stems at 18 inches when grown well. They make gorgeous bouquets.

hopflower, maybe you can help me figure out how to grow my sweet peas better. I have had 2 good year and about 6 bad ones with them. Last year my friends here also had trouble even getting good germination. I really want longstemmed beautiful ones like you showed us! I love Kings Navy Blue, and had a wonderful crop of them one year but Thompson and Morgan is the only place I find to get the seeds. My best is usally High Scent. Where do you buy your seeds from? I am in a coastal zone 8 and a half here, Puget Sound in Washington.

Okay. Good temperature zone for peas. First; how do you grow yours? Cordon? Bush? Up trellis in the ground; in a box or half barrel? Also, what kind of soil or mix do you use? Where in the garden are they grown?

Well, I have tried different things. Prestarting them in paper cups seems to work well, so that they are good strudy plants pinched back to about 6" when I set them out. LAst year I planted them straight in the ground and I think they were eaten off near the top of the soil, even though I had ducks clearing the slugs from the area. I enrich the garden soil with compost and greensand and osmocote, and plant them down deep. Then few that make it up to the trellis still look underfed, and underproduce before succombing to virus spread by aphids. I offer organically grown flowers so just try to keep the aphids off with water spray. I planted them where they would get about 3/4 day of sun. Used 6" mesh trellis to support them. I only got about 2 pickings this last year, and out of 6 or more varietes only had 2 come up well. Most of Renee's did not. I think my best were good old High Scent and Johnny's seed mix. The summer before that was too hot for them...heat wave in April and May and they never recovered. Last year should have been good...moderate temps that were never too hot until the July 4th holiday for aobut 3 days, then back to temperate.

There, did I give any clues?

Only one or two: The fact that it as too hot; which is beyond your control of course, and the fact that slugs and snails got to them right away, especially when put in the ground. Since you do not use slug and snail bait, and I respect the fact that you don't want to; you will almost always lose them. They are like a tender French lettuce to us when the snails see them! Yes they will also succumb to mosaic or other virus if aphids get to them. Mne also get attacked but I faithfully use Corrie's Slug and Snail Death and I don't mind if they get the first couple of inches of leaves once the plant is up about 6-8 inches high. Then they can have a few. I apply a pencil-thin line around the whole bed, and each day awake to find a hundred dead snails in the garden. The snails are bad where I live.

Feeding them too early is another mistake. Too much nitrogen, since they are already nitrogen-fixed to start with, can cause virus and weakness. It attracts aphids which spread it. I do not fertilise mine until after their first flowering. Then I use fish fertiliser or a sea kelp formula like MaxSea; of course when applied correctly you can use whatever you want to use. Osmocote should be fine if you like that one.

Good, fresh seed is a must. I order from Owl's Acre in England and a few other growers and hybridists. The nursery is devoted to sweet peas, and Mr Rowland breeds the plumpest and largest and freshest seeds imaginable. It is amazing as well; he is about 3 miles from where one of my cousins is from!

I think if you take a look at his site you will find you like them. Thre is a large amount of choice and you will see something you like. He provides flowers for Covent Garden and also weddings and the like. Of course, here he would send seed. It is easy buying now as he accepts credit cards which he did not always do several years ago, so you will have no trouble ordering.

Let me know if you decide to order and what you order. I would love to talk peas again!

Here is the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Owl's Acre Sweet Peas

I did enjoy this site and put in quite an order with them! I know that one of the keys with sweet peas is getting really fresh seed and it looked like a good source for that. I also thought I would try some of their winter sweet peas in my greenhouse just as an experiment, then ordered a selection of colors. Now, after I prestart them and have good sturdy plants, and set them out with slug bait, and keep them well watered, is there anything else I should do? Or just hope for a nice moderate summer!
WS Deep Rose
WS Light Pink
WS mixed
Jilly
Limelight
Ethel Grace
Burnished Bronze
Our Harry
Valerie Harrod
Mrs Bernard Jones

Jilly is the most gorgeous, frilly, large cream; Ethel Grace has to be my favourite sweet pea. I just love it. To me, it is the quintessential pea; soft lavender, frilly, and extremely fragrant. Mrs Bernard Jones was bred by her husband the late Bernard Jones, and is a delicate rose pink. It is beautiful. You will be amazed, and I kid you not; about the size and condition of those pea seeds when you get the packets. I sent a few to Jodi who I think will enjoy them as well. You cannot get them anywhere like that here. Limelight is a newer one and has a green cast; quite different from anything else you have ever grown. It was bred by Mr Rowland who you bought the seeds from. I have grown Burnished Bronze, and do not like it quite as much as Windsor, which I grow now. It is pretty, however, and of course a matter of taste. Windsor is chocolate and less burgundy. Our Harry is a medium blue and very pretty.

To get really large ones after the cool part of spring has turned warmer, you need to grow them in the cordon fashion, that is grow them on one or at most two stems, cut off tendrils, and keep them on the supports with rings or ties, and feed lightly at every three or four week intervals with LOW NITROGEN food. If you have to much nitrogen, you get aphid problems who are attracted to it. Above all keep the flowers picked well; the more you pick the more you get! Remember too that once the temps approach the nineties, our flower starts to flag, but will come back when the weather cools again later on. Just take care of the vines.

OK, I will do a little research on the cordon system. I would love to have nice long stems! And hopefully if we do get anything over 90, it will not be more then 3 days of it.

We do get pea enation virus here...I have wondered if that is part of the problem I have. I have not grown food peas for a long time because if I did not get them in early The crop would not be good.

I am glad you approve the choices I made, LOL. I am pretty excited about these! EVery year I Have a pet project in my cutting garden business. Last year it was Lisianthus, which I have not won the challenge on yet. So I will continue on that one and also work on the sweet peas. I garden about an acre of cutting garden by myself so not a lot of time to spend on any one thing, but I do love being out and busy in the garden! THis summer I will still have the one bad knee but hope the new one will make a difference until The end of the season when I can get the other one done...then look out garden, here I come!

I have been so enchanted with my Lemon Lime amies, I wonder how I COuld grow them outside here in the summer...what beautiful wedding bouquets those would make with almost anything else, Like Blue Bouquet Larkspur, pink sweet peas, Apricot roses...

Anyone in a non tropical zone tried them for summer flowers? I am doing all my lemon limes in self crossing to hopefully get a bunch of seedlings to try this with. I wonder if it would just be a matter of holding the bulbs in the fridge and timing the planting of them?

Our son is engaged and I bet my future daughter-in-law would love a bouquet like that! I told her to give me the date when they figure it out and I will plant what ever she likes. She thought that was pretty neat to have her own custom florist!

I kept my bulbs in the fridge because of our move in the beginning of the year. I planted my bulbs from May and up till September, I had no problems with them. Only a few of them shown signs of slight deterioration. Most of them bloomed like a dream. I came to the conclusion that the bulbs are fine in the fridge up to 6 months or so and still retain their original flower power.

Well lizalily, I think you will be happy with the sweet peas. When they get too hot, however, they start to flag, just keep the vines going on with plenty of cool water at their roots. Keep the sprinkler off of the leaves and vine; it tends to spread mould if they are dense. Do not feed until after their first flowering and even then I would use half strength until they are in midgrowing season. If your soil is good they don't need a lot of food. You will get bigger flowers if you grown them with tendrils and axillary buds pinched off; if you were showing for exhibition you would have to have at least 300 vines from which to choose. They are labour intensive, but I am such a sweet pea fanatic that I don't care! :)

For your purposes growing on the bush is fine. I can imagine that bouquet you have planned for your future daughter in law; it is a beauty in my mind's eye.

Like Hippeastrum, sweet peas are not found in yellow either. The closest you can get is a deep cream. I might look into one of those Lemon-Limes myself. It sure is lovely.