Summary
Sweet peas encourage devotion among their die-hard followers, but as our summers get drier and hotter, their days may be numbered.
MONTY DON explores some new sweet pea varieties but he complains that many miss out on the plants' best asset their pungent aroma Despite the baking weather of the past few months, my sweet peas are still going strong. In a cool, damp summer (and will there be any more of those in our lifetime?) they can flower into September, but they do thrive on moisture, rich soil and coolish temperatures. This is where those of us living in the west of England have a huge advantage over those in the south-east, who have endured dry conditions since spring. Where I live we have not had a hosepipe ban (although we imposed one on Gardeners' World as an act of solidarity and to see how it would affect the garden), and the ground only began to get noticeably dry towards the middle of July. But hot, dry weather is not what sweet peas like, so maybe they will be one of the garden casualties of global warming. This will be a tragic loss.See the full content of this document
Extract
Minding Your Peas and Qs ; Gardening
I grow sweet peas enthusiastically but probably badly, although well enough for us to enjoy them. The competitive growers pinch out all the side shoots or tendrils as they grow, to focus the plant's energies into small numbers of perfect blooms, but that is unnecessary for normal garden use. We want masses of flowers, albeit of mixed quality.
It is important to remember the Latin name for sweet peas: Lathyrus odoratus - and they should sm...See the full content of this document
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