A minor triumph

My first home grown posy of sweetpeas - I can't tell you how thrilled I am! Gorgeous!

Here are a few sweetpea tips I've picked up along the way:

• They are thirsty plants - they need lots of water if they are to grow lots of flowers
• One strong shoot per plant - any side shoots should be nipped off so that all the energy goes into producing lots of flowers
• Remove tendrills - again this is so that the energy goes into the flowers not the tendrills, although I found that the tendrills did their job in keeping the plants unright and holding onto their support so I didn't remove them!
• Pick the flowers regularly for gorgeous posies of divine smelling blooms - or deadhead them otherwise the plant will start to produce seed pods and will stop flowering. I'm in a bit of a quandary about this one - to pick and have some lovely flowers in the house or to leave on the plant and have lovely colour in the garden. Always a tough call.