Time for a lay down
Every year I am astounded by the growth of the sweet peas. I sow them in October and overwinter them in the cold greenhouse. I planted them in March when they seem so straggly and weak. I am always worried that they won’t grow, but they are currently flowering well and have reached the top of their canes. I grow them as cordons – single-stemmed plants – up canes – and grow about 50 plants. Because I want strong, long stems, I tie them to the canes with wire rings and remove all the tendrils. This will encourage large leaves but also prevents the tendrils grabbing the other plants and flower stems. I also remove all the sideshoots. There is one in every leaf axil. It is a time-consuming job and I have to do it at least twice a week. By April the plants were starting to grow and thicken up but by this week some had reached the top of the canes. As they do so and the stems flop I was getting bent flower stems. Because they are grown to sell for charity at the gate, I want long stems and pick about five bunches for the second half of the week and get a few bunches for myself early in the week. Each plant will produce two or three stems a week.
Anyway, it was time to layer them. This involves untying the stems from the canes, laying them on the ground and retying them about 6 canes to the side so they can grow vertically again.
This is where all the previous work pays off. Sweet pea stems are quite brittle and are prone to break at the nodes. If they are left with side shoots or tendrils, layering is impossible. And because I use wire rings, they are easy to prise open and reuse – in fact, year after year.
I start at one end and lay the plants down in a fan so I don’t get them mixed up and they are in the right place for retying. After about five plants are laying down, the next one can be tied to the first cane, depending on how long the plant is. About 30cm of stem is needed to get the shoot upright and you must not bend or snap them! You will also need to remove some flowers and young flower stems if you want them for cutting because they will otherwise bend at the tip. It is also a good opportunity to catch any old flowers you missed that are now seed pods.
Now the plants can grow upwards again and I will have at least another 1.2m or more of growth before I will have to do the whole thing again if they are still growing well. I gave them a handful of fertiliser too to boost their growth.
Remember that sweet pea buds will not open if they are picked so only pick the flowers when they are fully open. They only last three or four days when cut but they smell so wonderful they are worth the effort.
The Biking Gardener 
That’s an awful lot of fiddly work!
It is, but it is actually nice to do something properly rather than fire-fighting with weeds in a panic. Setting aside a couple of hours to do something that is proper gardening and not just damage control is actually a fine thing.
That is a brilliant way to get more flowers!
This technique should get more attention. I know of no one else who writes about it. I do not use it for sweet peas only because I do not grow sweet peas. They do not perform well here. I have done it with violas and pansies though.