December Flower Kit - Grow Together

Sweet peas & Oriental Poppies

Sweet Peas

You have four different varieties to bring a mixture of colour and scent. Sow under cover (and keep out of the reach of mice!). Place two seeds in each module/pot. Cover very lightly with soil then gently firm in with hand or back of another seed tray. Highly recommend you sow some now and again in January and March for a full summer of Sweet peas.

Once they are 10-20cm high, pinch them  to make sure you get big bushy plants instead of tall skinny ones. Then we’ll move them out into the garden in late March when the soil starts to warm up.

Final spacing – Pairs of Sweet Peas at 15-20cm apart or Groups of 3 at 30cm spacing.

Height – 180cm. Will need something to climb up (a trellis, some netting, bamboo wigwam) – but you have until March to sort that!

Links referred to in the video:

Greenhouses and my set-up: click here to read

Root trainers shown in the video above: click here see on Amazon

Plant labels shown in the video above: click here to see on Amazon

Deep pots when sweet peas are ready to be potted on: click here to see on Amazon

Oriental Poppies

Video coming any minute now....

Can be started indoors now (and you may well get flowers in May or June) and/or sow directly onto the soil in May (and flowers will appear a year later). It is said that poppies hate being transplanted because they have a long tap root, but I’ve had great success starting them indoors before moving them out. Sprinkle seeds onto soil. Light aids germination so do not cover.

 If grown under cover, prick them out when they have their first two true leaves and then we’ll keep them under cover or in a sheltered spot in your garden in their pots until after the last frost (usually late May/early June) when we’ll move them into their beds.

If direct sowed, thin them out when they have their first true leaves to 20cm apart and then to their final spacing of 40cm in the Spring.

With all seeds, sow, then water seed tray from below by adding water to a tray/sink and placing the tray in the water for 20-30 minutes or from above using fine rose on watering can. Keep moist but not soaked.

Final spacing – 40cm. Height – 90cm. This type of poppy is a perennial so will self-seed for years to come so sow and forget until the flowers bloom!