Having heard experts on the tele, as well as neighbours and passers by,
complaining that it's been a bad year for sweet peas, I have to say that
my experience has been the opposite. From half a dozen plants I have
been picking the flowers daily and the house is full of them.

I know that Monty is conducting his own tests but my conclusion is that
the earlier they are sown, the better. Mine were germinated indoors at
the beginning of November and put outside in plastic bags a couple of
weeks later.

On Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:49:51 +0100, stuart noble
wrote:

Having heard experts on the tele, as well as neighbours and passers by,
complaining that it's been a bad year for sweet peas, I have to say that
my experience has been the opposite. From half a dozen plants I have
been picking the flowers daily and the house is full of them.

I know that Monty is conducting his own tests but my conclusion is that
the earlier they are sown, the better. Mine were germinated indoors at
the beginning of November and put outside in plastic bags a couple of
weeks later.

I dug mine up yesterday as they were simply rotting away. I have also
dug up and chucked bedding dahlias, asters and a lot of tuberous
begonias that also rotted from the ground up. My fibrous begonias seem
to be ok so far but are not growing anywhere near their normal rate. I
don't think I've got a hardy annual left.

People on the allotment site I was hoping to get a plot on tell me
that most are simply digging stuff up and throwing on enormous compost
heaps with those that garden organically faring worst because of a
mollusc explosion. The non-organics are going through slug pellets
like crazy because they need to be replaced every day thanks to the
wet. I'm glad I didn't get a plot this year.

I was in a shed the other day pricing up the big catering bags of
concrete seeds they sell!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay. We don't yet have a
"dah dah dah dah dee dee deeee" theme tune but we're working on it.

Can't tell astilbe from aranthus
But I can from an acanthus!

On 06/07/2012 13:38, Jake wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:49:51 +0100, stuart noble
wrote:

Having heard experts on the tele, as well as neighbours and passers by,
complaining that it's been a bad year for sweet peas, I have to say that
my experience has been the opposite. From half a dozen plants I have
been picking the flowers daily and the house is full of them.

I know that Monty is conducting his own tests but my conclusion is that
the earlier they are sown, the better. Mine were germinated indoors at
the beginning of November and put outside in plastic bags a couple of
weeks later.

I dug mine up yesterday as they were simply rotting away. I have also
dug up and chucked bedding dahlias, asters and a lot of tuberous
begonias that also rotted from the ground up. My fibrous begonias seem
to be ok so far but are not growing anywhere near their normal rate. I
don't think I've got a hardy annual left.

People on the allotment site I was hoping to get a plot on tell me
that most are simply digging stuff up and throwing on enormous compost
heaps with those that garden organically faring worst because of a
mollusc explosion. The non-organics are going through slug pellets
like crazy because they need to be replaced every day thanks to the
wet. I'm glad I didn't get a plot this year.

I was in a shed the other day pricing up the big catering bags of
concrete seeds they sell!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay. We don't yet have a
"dah dah dah dah dee dee deeee" theme tune but we're working on it.

Can't tell astilbe from aranthus
But I can from an acanthus!

I can only assume that here in SE the weather hasn't been quite as
miserable :-)

stuart noble wrote:
Having heard experts on the tele, as well as neighbours and passers by,
complaining that it's been a bad year for sweet peas, I have to say that
my experience has been the opposite. From half a dozen plants I have
been picking the flowers daily and the house is full of them.

My white ones failed, but the blue ripple are now flowering well.
I'm growing them up a wigwam with a lily in the middle, hoping that
maybe it'll keep the lily beetle confused. Isn't really working. No
lily beetle, but they seem to be getting slugged intead.