Gardening with Gary

Gardening Advice from an Expert

Sweet Pea Plants

Q. Can I find sweet peas plants in So. Cal. or must I buy seeds? I saw pink ones flowering...are there any other colors?

A. Some nurseries in So. Cal. sell sweet peas in starter six packs in the spring. They would be sold out by now. They sell either all of one color or a mixed bag.

Hybridizing has brought us all sorts of colors of the wonderful sweet pea, one of my fave flowers of all. There are all the pastel colors you can envision, as lavender, pink, rose, pale blue, white, pale yellow. Then there are the darker colors of all the aforementioned as, purple, deep blue, red, scarlet, wine, hot pink, crimson.

You can buy seeds at nurseries or mail order catalogs or online in the winter and either sow them outdoors in garden beds or containers, or start them earlier in flats inside you home in a bright window.

I hope you grow some in the future. By the way, your friend can give you some seed from her plants as they readily form pea pods for next spring!