Perennial Sweet Peas

I planted some of these from seed last year, in two pots either side of an arch with a clematis in each pot, since then they just keep growing , even through the snowy cold weather. Is this the norm for them ?. They look a little careworn today but still look quite happy.

 

Mine did keep going well into the Autumn and then stopped/top growth went brown only after some quite cold conditions so suspect it is quite normal but hasten to add not a expert.They are incredibly hardy and can vouch ancient/enormous specimens happily survived temperatures of -27 in the early 1990s. Just cut down all last years growth when convenient and with luck you will have flowers this year. The ancient ones I had at a previous house had so many flowers that I swapped them for something else with a local florist. The more you cut the flowers the more that come. 1 word of warning, they produce huge tap roots and don't move very well, so unless you intend to keep them in pots which from my experience they outgrow pretty quickly, decide where you'd like them as a permanent fixture. I attempted to move the ancient ones as could hardly get out of the front door and gave up when I discovered the roots were about 5/6 inches!!! in diameter. Mind you they were at least 50 years old!

 

Hi Pam, yes they are as tough as old boots and will continue to put on top growth unless it gets badly frosted. They must be getting a little protection from freezing from either snow or something? They are better cut hard back in the spring though, even if the tops look alive. Otherwise the previous seasons growth is brittle and tatty.

 

My garden faces south/east and surrounded by high fencing so they probably are getting sheltered, wind whistles up the side from the north then gets buffered by the shed.
Silu will keep an eye on the roots as I only put them in to compliment the clematis, do not want it to swamp those, if they are that vigorous. Might even in spring move them into a permanent position with an obelisk, on what I call "the bank" at the bottom of the garden.

 

Didn't know there were perennial sweetpeas . Do they flower as well as the annuals ?

 

I dug mine up some years ago, blimey, what an effort to get that huge fang out of the ground. It took the plant a while to get over it but it's fine now.

 

Harry they flower really well once a few years old. They come in white, pale and a rich dark pink, I don't know of any other colours. They keep flowering if you cut the flowers. They don't normally flower the 1st year from seed in my experience. The have really big flower heads given time but the down side as opposed to the annual variety is that don't have a lovely perfume. Maybe google perennial sweetpea and you sure to find images of the flowers. I really like them and with a huge garden to try and control(accent on the try!) don't have much time to plant any types of annuals here.

 

I planted some perennial sweetpea seeds last year. Not being a "gardener" I just pushed the seeds into the ground to (hopefully) grow up a sunflower.

They not only grew, they flowered!



The annual sweetpeas I grew in another bed flowered more prolifically, but I wasn't disappointed by the perennials and, despite being told they wouldn't have the strength of fragrance of the annuals, they still held a descent scent

 

Mum, these look very like annual sweet peas.

 

Maybe? Packet definately stated "perennial", which is why I chose that particular location.

The annual sweet peas I had were put in another bed - foolishly with "garden" peas so I ended up not knowing the difference in that bed (So, no pea harvest for Mum last summer).

I also have a "wild" type of sweet pea which springs up of its own accord, but it is much, much smaller (and not fragrant).