I sow mine in late October, usually. I do see a few self seeded ones coming up now. They usually bloom all winter and until June, if I keep up with picking them. Lisa

I have fallen quite badly for several New Zealand bred grandifloras - Blue Vein, Lunar Sea, Erewhon, Roosterville and Blue Shift...all bred by Keith Hammet.Several have been hybridised with lathyrus bellinensis.

Have been terribly tempted by the Solstice short day ones too.

'my winters are too cold for them to live all season long.' I've been trying to understand that, rhizo. There's something I'm not getting. Do you mean that your autumn sown SPs bloom that same autumn and then die? Campanula's Autumn sown SPs are for flowering the following year. I don't often grow them but when I do I sow in January in my glass porch. My daughter has some in her London window box which have now survived,albeit it scruffily, for 3 seasons. We are told they're annuals .....?

Yep - there are a couple of clumps on my neighbour's plot which return every year - so far, I have been unsure whether they are self sown seedlings. They are certainly not Spencer's though - possibly not even grandiflora - look very close to the original Matucana with small maroon/purple blooms...and very fragrant. Anyway, most sweet peas will only flower with 12 hours of daylight - hence the innovation of the Solstice varieties which will flower with 10 hours daylight. They absolutely can't bloom in the first autumn unless living on the equator...but I assumed Rhizo actually meant that autumn sown flowers often fade before the following summer gets in it's stride - mine certainly do - although that might be because I despair of keeping up with deadheading. If I am on form, I might do a January sowing and a direct spring sowing...but it is always the autumn ones which have the really robust showing.

I have success with sweat peas sown in late October and in January. BUT the fall ones are a gamble. Last winter they would have been a great one. We had no real freezes and ample moisture. But other winters, we have had HARD (-5C/23F) freezes in late November and December that decimated them . This year we were well in the 90's and dry as a bone in October. I just had rain so I am planting my sugar snaps late. It has been too hot to start much without massive watering that I can not do being dependent on rainwater for all met needs. I have not gotten around to the Sweat Peas yet. I am still working on the winter vegetable garden. We have had 3" of rain in the last 2 days and more projected. January is a better time here. The hard freezes then catch them small and mulchable. The frost cover can still be utilized because they are short. Our weather can swing mightily but -9C/15F is the absolute lowest and we hardly ever see that. I have reached that twice in 15 years out here. Normal years are 19 - 23F and the cold temps don't stick around. We are back up into usual lows in the 40's pretty quickly and highs in the 60's and 70's.

The conditions here are generally unfavorable. I agree with wantonamara above taht last year would have been grand if I'd had preknowledge. Usually they won't make it through the winter here if autumn sown, but they hardly have time to do much before summer in late winter/spring sown.
It's just not sweet pea country :)

Our springs can get warm in a hurry so planting them early in January is a must but I have had success but they are picky.