Before planting sweet peas water them well before you start.  Sweet peas are ready to plant when they have well-developed roots (image second left) and be several inches tall. Sweet peas are tougher than they look and will tolerate it cold, and even a touch of frost, if hardened off, but I still find to get them off to a good start don't plant during a cold wet spell. Sweet peas are very greedy plants;  they need a lot of plant energy to grow tall and produce endless blooms. Dig out a planting trench and fill it full of good quality compost. Place the Sweet Peas in and cover with more compost and firm in well. As with all planting it is important not to have any air pockets which impedes the growth of the roots.  Once firmed in, water well again to settle plant and soil.

Sweet peas grow tall, 1.5 -2 metres and need a framework to grow up. An obelisk was used planting these sweet peas, trellis  or netting will do as well. At this very early stage it's good to give the plants a helping hand and tie the young plants into the frame to start them off scrambling up it.

When growing sweet peas it's very important to keep dead heading as this encourages the plant to continue producing flowers.  Also the tendrils, which look like a climbing aid, are really a problem in disguise. The tendrils will hook onto other parts of the plant and will cause the plant to bunch up and eventually to get tangled. Remove tendrils to keep the plant growing upright and to produce long-stemmed blooms.

In the event we have a dry summer, water is essential to the health of sweet peas. More about growing sweet peas