Sweet pea "Love Formula"

Sweetpea "Formula of Love".
Excellent pink-white shades of "sailing" inflorescences will create a unique atmosphere for your garden,
thanks to long and strong peduncles, which are perfect for creating "long-lasting" cut bouquets.
And the timely removal of faded inflorescences will prolong the abundant flowering until the very frost.

* "Fragrant and very attractive" - ​​this is how the botanical name of this plant is translated from the Greek.
The fragrant rank is an annual plant with climbing stems, up to 200 cm high. Over the summer, the plant produces as many inflorescences as no other, and therefore is valued as a cut crop.
It is necessary to cut off the inflorescences of peas, since this stimulates the formation of new ones in even greater quantities. The plant blooms from June to the first frost.
Peas are very light-loving and cold-resistant, tolerate short-term frosts down to -5 ° С. It develops more readily in sunny, wind-protected places, in light fertile soil without fresh organic fertilizers. Do not overfeed peas with nitrogen fertilizers, because their excess stimulates intensive growth of green mass to the detriment of flowering. Water the plants sparsely but generously.
With a lack of moisture, the buds fall off, the flowers become smaller and wither quickly. The most optimal watering time: 1 time in 10 days.
It is necessary to direct the stalks of sweet peas to the supports as early as possible, otherwise you risk breaking fragile stalks. The shape of the support can be very diverse, but most often peas are grown on trellises or in pyramids.

GROWING.
In Estonia, sweet pea seeds ripen in early September. Seed formation inhibits flowering, so it is better to leave 1-2 plants specifically for breeding, without cutting off the flower stalks from them. The seeds are rather large, with a hard shell. Before planting, soak them in warm (+ 60 ° C) water and germinate in a humid environment. You can specially carefully cut the shell for quick germination.
Since flowering occurs 2-3 months after germination, plant the seeds in late March - early April in peat pots with a nutritious earthy mixture: one or two or three seeds per hole.
For better branching, pinch young plants over the third leaf. The growing period for seedlings lasts about 40 days. In open ground, peas can be planted already in the first decade of May with a distance of 20-25 cm between plants.
The root system of sweet peas is sensitive to damage, and growth does not begin until two weeks later. Therefore, it is better to plant plants with a clod of earth. Sprouted seeds can be planted in the ground in early May, but flowering in this case will come two weeks later.
For the most spectacular inflorescences, leave 1-2 of the strongest stems on the plant, and remove the rest.
Pinch the side shoots and part of the antennae regularly so that the plant wastes nutrients to form buds.
Sweet peas are fed twice: the first feeding is carried out at the beginning of the growth of the stems with complex organo-mineral fertilizer, the second - when buds appear, with phosphorus-potassium fertilizer.

Eng.: Sweet pea, sweetpea.