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Perennial sweet peas

Up_the_garden _pathUp_the_garden _path Posts: 218
in Plants
I have perennial (everlasting ) sweet peas and I haven't pinched out growing tips so they have just grown straight up and leggy with flowers at top.  If I cut then down a bit will I still get flowers ? 
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Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    yes.
  • Up_the_garden _pathUp_the_garden _path Posts: 218
    Thank you 
  • Chrissy the gardenerChrissy the gardener Posts: 1,072
    If you gently anchor down the long growth to be horizontal they will make new stems along the growth.I never pinch out the tips on mine I just do as i stated and it works well.
  • ChrisWMChrisWM Posts: 214
    That’s invaluable, Chrissie. My Matucana sweet peas are my first attempt, and I need to train them better next year. 

    If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    They’re pretty, @ChrisWM but yours won’t grow next year, they’re annuals.
    My perennials are plain pink and covered in smaller flowers.

    If you can stand them for a another year or two they’ll take over with picking out or trimming, I just leave these to do their own thing. 
    Apart from them making a bit for the whole border, I don’t touch them.


    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ChrisWMChrisWM Posts: 214
    edited July 2018
    Thanks, @Lyn. I am aware they’re annuals, but was not aware of how to train them. They’ve got to the top now, so I’ll have to let them flop down! I guess if I had trained them to go around in a loop, they would have shot out side branches? As it is, I have plenty of cuttings!

    I much prefer your mass of blooms!
    If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    They’re ok Chris, just keep cutting the flowers off, don’t let them seed and they’ll keep blooming, do you feed them,  some tomorite or similar will be good. They’re quite hungry plants. Not so the perenials though.
    I could send you seeds if you’ve got a trellis for them, they won’t do well in pots. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • AuntyRachAuntyRach Posts: 5,291
    Apart from the lack of scent, I am a fan of the perennial Sweet Peas mainly because they survive the Winter and don’t seem to get destroyed by slugs (mine are in a large pot which I add canes too. 
    My garden and I live in South Wales. 
  • ChrisWMChrisWM Posts: 214
    That’ brilliant @Lyn. My only area that would take a trellis is a south facing garage wall. Ideal, but because of the foundations, the soil is only about 6-7” deep - would that be enough? I fear not?
    If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited July 2018
    I find mine quite thirsty too.
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