Hurray for sweet peas! I have flowers in every room of the house.

[K8-EEE]

Even the bathroom! Anybody who lives in So CA do yourself a favor and get the $1.50 seed packs at Sego nursery in NoHo -- I've tried others but I find if you plant these seeds in January (soak them overnight first!) you will be swimming in pink and blue flowers April thru June.

[beac]

1. I am trying to grow Sweet Peas from seeds here in VA.

I started some indoors and some outside. The ones outside didn't germinate, probably due to our weird April weather, but the one indoors came up nicely. The problem now is they are growing taller and taller but still seem too spindly to plant out and the root systems don't seem very full or strong. Should I pinch them back and wait a little longer or just plant them out and let them take their chances?

ETA: Yours are GORGEOUS and I'm hoping I can get ones half that nice. :)

[K8-EEE]

2. They're greedy little feeders...

Hi, thank you! I do these every year and they are my favorite flowers.

One thing is they are greedy feeders so to make it easier I use a granular time-released food when I plant the seeds. If you didn't do that, try putting them on a weekly schedule with the plant food. I also dig in a lot of compost to condition the soil, they don't like "soggy" roots, so rich well draining soil is important. Soak the seeds overnight before planting and provide stakes or trellises or something for them to climb in to keep the stems from getting bent (mine are on tomato cages, since the sweet peas and tomatoes grow in different seasons here in L.A.) GOOD LUCK!
.

[beac]

3. Thanks for the tips.

I put chopsticks in the little pot with the seedlings when I saw they were growing tendrils, though they are being a little stupid about grabbing onto them-- it's been windy here, so i think that's part of their trouble. I'll give them a nice meal of worm poop and go ahead and set them out. I plan to put them next to a twig trellis I made and in a few other spots where they'll have support.

[K8-EEE]

4. I love anything that climbs -- we have "nasturtium races"

on these old bedsprings every year. They come back on their own....can't beat that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37971863@N07/4568075969/sizes/s/

[beac]

5. Love nasturtiums too. Pretty AND edible.

I'm growing two varieties this year (Fiesta and Alaska.) I grew mine in a pot last year, but maybe I'll put some in the ground and see if they'll reseed.