How to get straight stems on Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are lovely with a powerful scent and a wide range of colours. We grow them both for their beauty in the garden, but also to pick and bring indoors. Sweet peas look best, especially in a vase, if they have straight stems.

First, if you want long straight stems, the variety you buy will make a difference.  Old-fashioned Spencer varieties are good; check the seed packet for descriptions of the varieties. The variety 'cupani' is pretty, but it has shorter stems although they will be straight.

To get straight stems on sweet peas, the tip is to remove the tendrils. Look for the tendrils illustrated above. They cling onto the plant support and look as if they are helping to support the plant; they are not.

The tendrils will cling onto the support, but also they will anchor onto other parts of the plant. This prevents the plant from growing upwards any further, which in turn, causes the plant to become twisted and this mis shapes the stems. As the summer goes on, the plant produces more and more tendrils, which wind and cling to all parts of the plant, and so will bend and distort the stems more and more. If left unchecked, there will only be a few straight stems on the plant, and the whole plant has become all bunched up and looks a mess.

The answer is to remove the tendrils every few days, or at least once a week.  Doing this many mean that the plant may flop and need some support to keep it growing upwards. It also means that you will have lovely straight stems on the flowers you pick and a plant which keeps growing upwards and covered in lots of lovely straight stemmed blooms. 

See also How to Grow Sweet Peas and Sweet Peas and mildew.