As a small child I do well remember my grandmother taking me by the hand and guiding me in the direction of my very first garden. Flowers were her love and joy in conjunction with the great outdoors. Living in the rural area of Oregon, Frenchglen to be exact was certainly a long way from the local garden center. Traditional garden seeds were hard to come by, but Grandma always seemed to have what she needed regardless of our distant location. Sweet Peas and Bachelor Buttons were two of her favorites. Easy to grow, tough as nails, and sure fire performers, helped make both of these flowers a great introduction to youthful gardening.  Sweet peas quickly became a favorite of mine as they did so well in our restless chilly spring weather. She always had me soak the seeds overnight to hasten germination, plus she instructed me to roll the moistened seeds in this powdery black material. Later identified as legume seed innoculant, I have continued to use this product on all my bean and pea seeds. It improves overall plant vigor as well as increasing blossom and subsequent fruit set on this particular species of garden plants. 

            Sweet peas come in two types of plant growth habit. Low growing bush type, plus the traditional climbing vine variety. Since they do best in cool season growing conditions we always sowed the seed in early spring (April / May) thus providing a grand show of color and fragrance usually in the month of May. Once you have grown Sweet Peas and indulged in their wonderful pastel colors and sweet fragrance you will be hooked for a lifetime of enjoyment.

            As you shop your local garden center for available seed you might just want to give a try to some of the many wonderful varieties. If you really get into it you will want to take a look at mail-order garden catalogs as well as internet sources due to their increased selections. I don’t think you will be disappointed with this new found friend of the early and cool garden. Many varieties will not only yield color to the picket fence but they make excellent cut flowers for indoor enjoyment. I have even sown a few seeds in a hanging basket to grace the early spring patio. You just might deliver  one of these fragrant bouquets to a close friend of relative, causing an unexpected smile of delight.

Now is the time to sow this wonderful seed. Enjoy!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.