This listing refers to the sale of seeds.
Lathyrus odoratus is beloved for its sweet, honey-like flowers. They can be grown as annuals or herbaceous or evergreen perennials with pinnate leaves and showy pea-like flowers.
Sweet Pea "Winter Sunshine - Mauve" was introduced in 2008 as a new winter-flowering variety. The rich mauve flowers are resistant to fading and look superb combined with light blue or scarlet.
The Winter Sunshine variety has different growth characteristics from normal sweet pea varieties and requires somewhat different cultivation. Early growth is vigorous, continuing through winter, even in the UK and Canada, where low light levels normally severely restrict plant development for many weeks.
In the UK, for example, mid-September is a suitable time for sowing. In the Netherlands, for example, these varieties can be sown in May for autumn flowers.
Pinching out the tip of the seed growth in the usual way will give one strong side shoot, but cutting this back may kill the plant, or result in a long delay before any further growth is produced.
This strain is more vigorous than other winter strains of sweet pea and should perform extremely well in the warm temperate regions. This variety can produce around 5-6 flowers per stem.