'Just Julia' Sweet Pea Seedlings

Just Julia Sweet Pea

A lovely, and unusual sweet pea, Just Julia has mid-blue to lavender coloured flowers that are less ruffled than gently ruched so that they give the impression of real weight and presence. The keel petal is slightly paler which gives a variation of hue that keeps changing with the light and adds to its prettiness. With a good strong scent, the flowers are supported on long, virile stems and the whole plant is renowned for withstanding wet and windy weather.
One of the best sweet peas in our range.

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: mid-blue with paler keel petal
• Stem: long
• Height: over 2 m
• Type: Spencer
• Scent: Good
• Flowering: May to August
• Planting Months: March-June
• RHS Award of Garden Merit 

In Your Garden Design

We love blues, mauves and purples in our gardens for their restful quality and for their contrast to lawns. Just Julia is a sweet pea to add into the mix: trail one up a fairly sturdy support in the centre of your herbaceous borders and be surprised at how effective she looks. Obviously Just Julia would be a beautiful cutting flower. A handful of Just Julia with roses like Blush Noisette or the gorgeous Buff Beauty would be enchanting and require no artistic or florist skill!
Or consider Albutt Blue which has a blue border that picks up the blue on this sweet pea. Otherwise, we have a whole range of colours and styles of sweet peas to peruse for other exciting pairings.....or trios.

Just Julia 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?

In a world which wants to be rid of experts, we have to save Roger Parsons who is the expert on sweet peas in this country. Just Julia is another sweet pea from his stable, and it is his most popular mid-blue sweet pea. It was bred and introduced in 2011 but by 2012 had been given its RHS AGM and 1st Class Certificate at the Wisley Trials.