Val Bourne sings the praises of the sweet pea, the classic cut-and-come-again garden flower

I couldn’t do without sweet peas in my garden because they’re such good cut flower. The more you pick the more you get, and they may not last too long in water but every couple of days I can snip some more for my kitchen table. Nothing catches the essence of high summer in quite the same way and most are highly scented.

The trick is to cut them early in the morning, making a slanting cut to maximise the stem’s surface area. Stand them in a bucket of water for a morning, somewhere cool outside, to give them a good drink and hopefully allow any pollen beetles to decamp. Use them on their own, in a simple jug or vase, because the colours all blend together. Or add them to other annuals and cut flowers. They also work very well with roses.

The mixed vase was assembled from blooms cut from Ursula Cholmeley’s Easton Walled Garden near Grantham in Lincolnshire, one of the very best places to see sweet peas expertly grown. There’s a “pickery” where visitors can pick their own flowers, a vegetable garden that supplies the tearoom, a main garden and a feminine Cottage Garden. The garden also sells sweet peas from its online shop.

The Cholmeley family took over in 2001 when the garden was derelict, and they’ve been renovating and developing the site ever since. It’s now open every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays (11am-4pm) from March 1 to October 30 (eastonwalledgardens.co.uk /01476 530063). There are also snowdrops at Easton Walled Garden and the garden has a Snowdrop Week between February 14 and 22.

My other favourite garden for sweet peas is Bramdean House near Winchester, the family garden of Victoria Wakefield. Their collection includes heritage 17th-century varieties and those raised between the 1890s and 1910, the golden era of sweet pea breeding. Victoria is particularly proud to have bred a new white called “Bramdean” (from englishsweetpeaseeds.co.uk) which has been awarded the coveted Award of Garden Merit by the RHS. Bramdean House garden opens for the National Gardens Scheme or Yellow Book.

Show bench enthusiasts, who grow for exhibition, sowed their sweet pea seeds last autumn, but I prefer to sow mine around now, because sweet peas favour cooler temperatures. If I wait until early spring I tend to produce leggier, softer plants with poorer roots. The sweet pea or Lathyrus odoratus is a member of the pea family. Its root nodules fix extra nitrogen and for this reason legumes do not enjoy being heavily fed, so do use a good seed compost that’s low in nutrients. The other essential is to use nine-inch-deep round black pots, the type used for hellebores, etc. Ordinary flower pots do not allow the roots to develop. Sprinkle the seeds on to the compost surface and cover with half an inch of compost. Water the pots well and then place them somewhere cool. A cold frame is ideal. Do not water them again until the shoots show. These large seeds are adored by mice, so you may need to cover them with wire. Grow them on until the plants reach between four and five inches in height.

When planting out, prepare the ground well and plant in a bright position, but not a hot spot. Add supports —I use twiggy sticks. Then water the young plants well with warm water from a can. I stand several cans nearby. Sweet peas will always do better in good summers that are not too dry.

Exhibition growers remove side shoots and train them, but I leave mine to their own devices. Others pinch out the tops to make bushier plants.

I always do well with the frilly pink and cream “Gwendoline” (Unwins 1999) because it produces dramatic wavy cerise-pink blooms on a white background. “Charlie’s Angel” (Hanmer 1980s) is lovely soft-blue that performs. “Jilly” (Harris 1988) is the best fragrant cream of all, with yellow buds that open to produce elegant wavy flowers held on strong stems. “Our Harry” (FG Davis 1985) is the best mid-blue sweet pea ever, with wavy petals and fragrance. “Pulsar” (also called “Lilac Ripple”, Thomas 1986) is my favourite, flaked with stripy lilac and white flowers. Or choose a good mixture.

Suppliers of plants and seeds
Owl Acre Sweet Peas, lathyrus.com
Simply Seeds and Plants, simplyseedsandplants.co.uk or 01945 880501
Unwins Seeds, unwins.co.uk or 0844 573 8400
Kings Seeds, kingsseeds.com or 01376 570 000
Mr Fothergill’s, mr-fothergills.co.uk or 0845 371 0518