GROWING NOTES

Be sure to protect young seedlings from their most common predators: birds, slugs and snails, especially if fall planting. If given good drainage, established perennial sweet peas are reliable and trouble free and can spread quickly. To keep flowers coming, mulch, keep well watered and remove spent blooms. In early fall, vines will begin to yellow, die back and go dormant. Cut the dead foliage to the ground. Vines will resprout the following spring.

EASIEST TO START OUTDOORS

Perennial sweet peas will thrive in a spot with well-drained soil, so dig deeply and enrich with aged manure or compost. Young plants are easy to train up a trellis, fence or wall, but you can also let them grow as a vigorous spreading perennial ground cover to hide neglected and bare areas. If training vines up, erect sturdy permanent supports for these strong growers at planting time. Sow seeds 1 inch deep and 3 inches apart in full sun as soon as ground can be worked in early spring. In mild winter areas, where the ground doesn’t freeze, plant in fall; seeds will germinate and form strong root systems, then overwinter to bloom strongly in spring. When seedlings are 2 inches tall, be sure to thin seedlings to stand 12 inches apart to allow plants room to mature.