From seed to bouquet - 08 Feb 17

    We are following the journey of our Sweet Peas from sowing, to final destination in a Bridal Bouquet.

These modern grandiflora Sweet Peas are great for cutting. Their long stems and superb fragrance make them perfect for Bridal Bouquets, mixed with homegrown English Roses, frothy Ammi and fresh foliage.  'Cathy' has a creamy white highly scented flower, and will team well with our other homegrown cut flowers for pretty vases and jars.

Seed is sown into compost in tubes, and kept on a window-sill where the warmth will encourage germnation.  Once they have started to grow they are put out into the polytunnel to grow on in cooler conditions.

Follow our up-dates on the Sweet Pea's journey
23rd March...

At this stage, the seedlings are developing good strong root systems.  We restrict the top growth by pinching out the growing tips - this encourages the stems to branch lower down, and we then have several stems per plant.   The seedlings are growing on in our polytunnel now.

April 21st...The young plants are put in the ground!
The polytunnel bed is prepared by digging in some well rotted manure, and weeding well.
Netting is put up to support the plants, and tied to overhead wires.
We plant (including the paper tube) through weed suppressing paper mulch, and tie in the young shoots to the netting support.
From there on , it is a case of watering daily, feeding fortnightly, and tying in the shoots.
Growth is pretty fast, once they get their roots down, and we are soom battling to keep up with the many shoots needing tying in.  We cut some away, leaving a few strong ones per plant.
   
Once flowering starts it's cut, cut, cut!!




17th June..  And here is the first Bridal bouquet to feature our Cathy Sweet Peas this year - for Lucie and Sam's wedding.