Charlies Angel Sweet Pea Seedlings

Charlies Angel Sweet Peas

Charlie's Angel is a strongly scented annual sweet pea that was voted by BBC Gardeners World magazine in 2011 as the 'best ever sweet pea'. Its flowers have wavy petals in a heavenly shade of pale watercolour blue that fades to almost white at the edges. This classic modern grandiflora sweet pea has a place in every garden, clambering up over a wigwam of canes, over an obelisk or twining itself through arches and trellis, where its rich scent will perfume your garden. Its strong, long stems on a plant that grows to around 2m high mean it's the perfect specimen for cutting and bringing indoors to bring colour and scent to your home.

A hugely popular addition to our range of sweet pea seedlings.

Our Sweet Peas are delivered in purpose-designed, recycled cardboard packaging, and are ready to be planted out when you get them.
We generally send them out between March and May, but we will email you with the likely delivery timescale once you have placed your order.

Features

• Colour: pale lavender/watercolour blue with white edges
• Stem: long and strong
• Height: 2m
• Type: Spencer
• Scent: strong and heady
• Flowering: June to September
• Planting Months: March-June
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Growing

Try growing a celestial scented combination with other subtly coloured sweet peas such as Anniversary or Gwendoline, with which it partners very well – always, always in a sunny spot and up an obelisk, trellis or pergola, in a pot or a border, where it will wind its delicate tendrils quite happily, given a little encouragement early in its growth. Or plant it side by side with a perfumed rose: pale pink, highly scented Souvenir de la Malmaison, for example. Charlies Angel's pale lavender charms would set off the pink a treat and create a dreamy pastel-hued show. Either way, keep your sweet peas well watered. This particular sweet pea has long, sturdy stems, so it lasts well indoors in a vase. Other varieties are good for cutting too, among them pale, almost coral pink Heaven Scent and bicoloured pink and white Promise. And don't forget that, as with all sweet peas, the more you pick, the more flowers the plant will produce, so don't be afraid to fill your vases to bursting!

Charlies Angel Sweet Peas do best in well worked, moisture retentive soil. Adding organic matter really makes a difference and is best done the autumn before. But on the day is very much better than not at all. Your plants will do best in open ground, but you can get good results planting Sweet Peas in window boxes and pots of sufficient size - allow at least 3 litres per plant and remember that these are quite deep-rooted plants. In containers, the ideal planting mix is 50% compost, 40% topsoil and 10% well-rotted manure. Ordinary potting compost is OK, but you will get fewer flowers.

A range of supports can be used from twiggy branches to willow wigwams to posts with netting stretched between. Whatever you use, do the construction work before planting. Think about the position - Sweet Peas can cope with a little shade but flower better in full sun.

Space plants about 30 cm apart and about 5 cm from their supports. The hole should be deep enough to plant the full length of the rootball and allow enough so the soil finishes level with the lowest pair of leaves. Check to make sure they are climbing well every week or so, as they grow quickly. Tie into their supports if not.

Sweet Peas biggest need is for water - they are incredibly thirsty plants. So water well after planting and make sure they never completely dry out. They are greedy too so you will lengthen their flowering period if you give them a high potash and phosphate fertiliser every 7-10 days once buds begin to form. Home-made comfrey liquid is perfect or Tomorite will do - especially if you are on a sandy soil.

Cut the flowers as they develop pick them, otherwise they run to seed and stop flowering.

Did You Know?

The Latin name of this English cottage garden favourite, Lathyrus odoratus, comes from lathyros, Greek for pea, and odoratus, fragrant. They're native plants of southern Italy, Cyprus and Sicily, so really not very English at all. In fact, it's said the first seeds arrived in England in the 17th century, having been sent over by a Sicilian monk.