Welcome to this weeks ‘In A Vase On Monday’, when I am link up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join in her challenge to find something from the garden to put in a vase every Monday.
This week feels a bit like I am cheating, as I am using my greenhouse grown sweet peas again. These flowers are so lovely that I feel I really need to make the most of them – if for no other reason than to encourage all of you with greenhouses or polytunnels to think about giving this winter variety of seed a try in the autumn.
The winter varieties of sweet pea seeds that I bought from Owl’s Acre Sweet Peas are sold by colour – I chose packets of rose, pink, white and lavender seed. I think the brighter pink is the rose variety and this is producing the most flowers at the moment. The paler pink and lavender varieties were slower to start producing but are picking up now, whilst the white is just getting into its stride.
Also in this weeks vase I added a huge flower of Ammi Majus and a few stems of Orlya – both growing in the greenhouse as the outside plants are not yet in flower. I bought the seeds for these flowers from Sarah Raven and they act as great fillers in a vase. Finally I included some stems of the beautiful cerinthe major, which has overwintered outside and is looking glorious in the borders.
These winter varieties of sweet peas have been in flower since mid April and are still producing flowers on very long straight stems. The flowers are pest free and smell delicious. I will see how my outdoor crop produces this year, but if they are covered in pollen beetle again I might be tempted to switch to just growing sweet peas in my greenhouse. I have about 10 plants in the greenhouse right now, which are producing enough flowers for 2-3 large jugs a week – ample to keep me in sweet peas in the kitchen and to have enough over for a few posies to give to friends.
I am also delighted with my experiment of leaving a few plugs of hardy annuals in the greenhouse when the rest were moved out to be hardened off in March. This year I only kept behind Ammi Majus and Orlya plugs, but next spring I think I will include some larkspur, nigella and cornflowers in this experiment. I do not have room to grow more than one or two plants of each in my greenhouse bed, but early in the season any extra blooms are a joy and they go so well with the sweet peas.
The two photos above are close up shots of Ammi Majus. Below is the similar but smaller flower Orlya, with a stem of Cerinthe Major which is popping up throughout my borders this year. Fortunately the foliage of germinating cerinthe is distinctive, so very easy to recognise when you are weeding.
I am so used to picking my sweet pea flowers now that it is easy to forget what a treat it is to have this lovely flower so early in the year. My outdoor sweet peas are still a few weeks from flowering. Once they get going though, they grow and produce at such a rate in the warmer summer temperatures that it is often hard to keep up with picking them. In the greenhouse I have had a manageable flow of flowers – easy to keep on top of when I pop in to do the daily watering. Even in the third month of flowering these sweet peas are still not setting seed!
So, have I convinced you to give these early flowering varieties a go in your greenhouse next winter? Do let me know what you think.
Finally for today I can announce the winner of this months Giveaway draw. The two packets of foxglove seeds kindly donated by the team at Sarah Raven have been won by Joanna@edinburghgardendiary – if you email me with your address Joanna I will get them in the post to you. I must say a big thank you to Sarah Raven for agreeing to sponsor this months Giveaway!
This Giveaway is the perfect reminder to us all to order our biennials without delay. Seed can be sown this month either direct in a seedbed or in trays under cover. For small quantities I think it is easier to sow in trays and then just prick out and grown on as many plants as you need. Sowing direct is much easier if you want larger quantities, but you must remember to thin out the seedlings and keep them well watered throughout the (hopefully) drier summer months.
Thank you as ever to Cathy for hosting this lovely meme – I hope you will pop over to her blog to see what she and the others have made this week!
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Love your close up of Cerinthe… and also love the idea of growing sweet peas in the greenhouse to get early blooms for cutting! May have to try it next year!
Thank you – you will need to start your sweet peas off this autumn and plant them in a greenhouse bed or large pot in the greenhouse to grow on through the winter. I hope you give them a try.
Your photography is so good I can almost smell the scent of your sweet peas. One of my allotment neighbours, we call him “Mike the Flower”, has had sweet peas with long straight stems growing on his plot for a couple of weeks now. Once they get going I may be lucky enough to be presented with a bunch. Meanwhile, on my plot my sweet peas (I’ve almost lost count of the number of sowings I’ve made this year due to molluscs and mice, could it be four?) are about 30cm high and just showing colour on the flower buds. I also have orlaya growing on the plot, but it looks like I’m weeks from cutting unless it suddenly puts on lots of growth when the weather finally warms up. I gave everything a comfrey tea feed this afternoon, just for a bit of encouragement. My local garden centre stocks Sarah Raven seeds so thank you for the reminder to get sowing for next year.
Thank you Sarah. These cool temperatures are certainly holding back our flowers and vegetables aren’t they! I am keeping my fingers crossed that things are starting to improve. ‘Mike the Flower’ sounds amazing – you should ask him to share his sweet pea secrets!
I almost couldn’t look as I have sweet pea envy….mine did not grow because we had such a heat wave right after I sowed them in April when the weather was perfect…it has been so hot and dry the poor things wouldn’t grow…even my regular peas were taxed. But I have a plan for next year where I will grow them and cover them early in hopes of getting them growing outside.
I adore the colors and the gorgeous arrangement…a feast for the eyes and I am sure the nose too.
Thank you Donna. I do hope you have success with your sweet peas next year. Much of the fun in gardening comes from trying to beat the weather doesn’t it!
Thank you ever so much Julie – what a nice surprise to greet me at the end of the day. Your sweetpeas are wonderful – don’t worry, we shan’t get tired of seeing them! I do like their co-stars too, especially the Cerinthe major, which I wonder if I could realistically get to grow in my not-that-sunny garden. I have perfect conditions for foxgloves though, and shall lose no time in getting them planted (seed trays for me, I think).
I am delighted you have won Joanna and will get the seeds in the post this week. Do let me know how you get on with them. Cerinthe is most successful in my garden in very sunny spots, but she would look lovely in the shade so I will try some plants in my shady areas and see how they get on this year.
Our sweet peas are long gone – the few plants I had this year were toasted by our March heatwaves before the flowers had a much of chance to bloom. However, that makes it all the more wonderful to see yours! It’s amazing how some plants can flower on similar schedules in our 2 areas of the world, while others – like the sweetpeas – operate on such very different schedules. I’ll be planting seeds for next year in early September here, as recommended for Southern California.
It is very interesting to learn how plants perform in different parts of the world Kris. It seems that sweet peas need to be an early crop in very hot dry climates. Here in the uk it is hard to get them to flower outside much before July, but they will then happily stand through our ‘hot’ weather and keep flowering into September as long as they are regularly dead headed. This year I am hoping to have them from April to September with my combination of indoor and outdoor grown plants. I will be sowing next years indoor crop in September and the first batch of outdoor seeds in November (although these will stay under cover until March).
A very elegant and creative vase, as usual! Have an inspiring week, Julie!
Thank you Anca. I hope you are having a lovely week too.
A luscious treat.
Thank you Valorie.
They are beautiful colours Julie. And the Ammi and Orlya do look lovely with them. 🙂
Thank you Cathy – it is so nice to have these flowers back to play with, although I think many of my outdoor annuals have collapsed in this weeks wind.
They are just so lovely…and to think you have more about to bloom outdoors! They are so delicate and sort of feminine; enjoy every lovely scent. You’re in the BYW course, right? See you over there!
Thank you Libby – yes I am back on BYW. Perhaps we can be partners next week.
Oh those sweet pea are simply lovely! I adore the colours! Lucky you to have them growing in your greenhouse.
Thank you!! When I got the greenhouse I was thinking mainly about vegetables, but now I love to use the space for growing flowers.
Oh, oh, oh! Such pretty flowers and arranged so well Julie.
Thank you Susie!!
A delightful vase, Julie. I have never grown sweet peas, but you a causing me to review that decision.
Thank you John and I hope that you will give them a try. You will need to look carefully at when to sow them though – your growing conditions are so very different to mine.
Your sweet peas are absolutely lovely! I’m so excited, as I’ve never tried growing sweet peas before and mine which I sowed under protection have grown up about two feet now on the trellis on the side of my house. They’re not commonly grown here in the Midwest because we have such a short spring — it goes from freezing to hot in about two months, so we’ll see if mine amount to anything. Even if I get a few flowers are beautiful as yours, it will have been worth the wait. Thanks for providing the inspiration to grow them!
Good luck with your sweet peas. I think they will need lots of feeding and watering to cope with your high temperatures and once flowering make sure you pick the flowers regularly as they will otherwise run to seed very quickly.
Absolutely beautiful Julie, and such a lot of information to support it. I think I will try sweet peas in the greenhouse this winter too – I had no idea they were special seeds. Have they been treated, or is it the variety? The extras in your vase are just perfect too, and a great advertisement for growing flowers for cutting. I was pleased to find some self-seeded orlaya recently, as I hadn’t sown any this time and must make sure I try and collect some seeds – or perhaps just shake them around. Luckily I recognised the foliage! Good to have you with us again this week Julie, with your educative post and lovely vase!
Thank you Cathy – I am delighted that you are going to give sweet peas a go in your greenhouse! I think these are just a special variety designed to grow in low light levels. I have only found them on sale through Owl’s Acre Sweet Peas, but do let me know if you find any others. I think I will try growing a few ‘normal’ seeds alongside these this winter to see what the difference is in flowering times.
I will let you know if I can find them any where else Julie
Your Sweet peas are gorgeous Julie and have been flowering for a long time already; I am tempted to try some for early flowers next year. They wouldn’t survive the heat of the summer here (I’ve tried and failed before) but perhaps starting them very early and planting them out early I might have some for spring, or now that I have external shading on the greenhouse I might try them in a large container inside.
Thank you Christina. I really think that if you started your sweet peas in September you should be able to get an early crop in before the weather gets too hot. Your light levels are so much better there and it is the light rather than heat that they respond too. I think you should try these winter seeds as well – they are designed to flower in lower light levels so grow better through the winter. I can send you some if that helps.
First I need a greenhouse, then the Owl Acre seed! What a treat for the eyes your vase is. Long straight stems sound great – I never manage that. What’s the secret? The tying in, removing tendrils? I especially liked the Cerinthe. I had lots last year but am not noticing it this year – I certainly wouldn’t weed it out, so I don’t know what happened.
Sweet pea…the most lovely flower I know! Great pictures…
Have a happy weekend and take care,
Titti