It’s time to sow winter favourites

Now that mornings are cooler and the sun is coming up later, it’s easier to start thinking about sowing autumn and winter flowers.

Fragrance always makes us feel better, especially in winter. Of all the winter flowers, sweet peas are the most fragrant and rewarding because blooms last well in the vase, spreading their perfume through the room.

Time, however, is running out. If you do nothing else this weekend, find a sunny spot and dig a trench for sweet peas. For climbing sweet peas, which includes most heirloom varieties, prepare the soil by making a trench 50cm deep. For bushy varieties make the hole 30cm, a spade’s depth.

Mix the removed soil with compost and lime. Sprinkle iron chelate at the bottom, with bonemeal for root development. Return the composted soil to the trench and water well.

Digging over the beds is easy if the soil is watered the day before. Once the bed has been prepared it will still be damp enough to sow straight away. Plant according to the depth on the seed packet, firm the soil after planting and water well.

Advice from Marlaen Straathof of Kirchhoffs Seeds is to soak the seeds in water for 24 hours before sowing as this improves germination and even speeds it up.

Sweet pea flowers. Picture: iStock

When climbers are about 18cm high, pinch off the top leaves. This encourages strong basal shoots.

Stake as they grow. Water once a week, mulch to keep roots cool and apply Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger, every 10 days when plants are in full bloom. Removing old flowers extends flowering.

Kirchhoffs Seeds has a large range of climbing and bush sweet pea varieties. All are robust, bearing a profusion of small, delicate and intensely fragrant blooms in a multitude of soft colours.

Old Spice mix, which contains striped, bicolour and solid colours, is regarded as the best heirloom climbing sweet pea for warmer gardens. It grows up to 2.5m and should be trellised.

There are five other climber mixes: Queen of the Night (navy, crimson and dusty pink), Ocean Foam (various shades of blues and cream), Starry Night (dark colours with white for the stars), Strawberry Sundae (pink and rose bi colours with white) and America (red with a white stripe).

Two heirloom varieties for containers are Cupid Mix – white, pink, rose, lavender, purple and mahogany – and Bijou Mixed, an easy-to-grow sweet pea.

Another fragrant cool-season flower that attracts butterflies and bees is stocks (Matthiola incana), a classic annual and cut flower.

Matthiola incana.

Austral Mix is an heirloom variety with strongly perfumed double and semi-double flowers in white, mauve, pink, apricot and rose. Plants grow 50cm high and flower from late winter (just when you need a lift) into spring.

Linger Longer Mixed is a compact, lower-growing plant, also with a glorious fragrance. It is an easy bedding plant, especially close to the patio or in pots. It is heat tolerant, too.

Stocks are at their best in cool weather. Plant them in a position that receives plenty of morning sun. They don’t stand up well to hot afternoon sun.

They grow in light, alkaline soil that drains freely, but will tolerate heavier soil if organic material is added.

Water regularly (the soil should not dry out) and fertilise at least once a month. With regular watering and feeding, the plants will keep flowering for longer.

For more information visit: www.kirchhoffs.co.za

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