Sweetpeas on Valentine's Day, Rain at last, Diplarrena spp.

 

Sweet Peas on the Footpath Spring 2002

Rain. We have been blessed with over 30 mm rain here since midnight - the perfect prelude to the Lunar New year tonight and the coming Year of the Tiger. My 5000 L rainwater tank installed just before Christmas is almost full so I am running a dripper line to ensure the excess goes in to the vegetable garden.

Sweet Peas. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is traditional to recommend planting Sweetpeas on St atrick's Day March 17th. I have found living here where we can have frosts between Anzac Day (April 25 and Melbourne Cup (First Tuesday in November) that March 17 is to late to get good growth before winter. I plant Sweetpeas on Valentine's Day - which seems appropriate. I usually grown them on a circular trellis to one sideof the vegetable garden. I dig out the soil to below spade depth and add a good amount of compost,water holding crystals and dolomite. Pile the soil back on top and water well. After the wateris drained away I plant the Swwetpea seeds at about 2 cm apart up next to te wire nettting of the trellis. A good number of seedlings usually emerge and by late April plants are usually 50 cm high - They make slow growth through winter and by Spring I am usually getting my first flowers.

Last Summer I neglected tocollect seed - it dreid out too early and set was poor so I imagine that there will be quite a few self sown seedlings coming up after this rain. I like to plantold-fshioned types and the Yates Patricia Ann are a good choice - with rippled veins of colour through the petals and good scent. The mai nuisance for sweet peas aresnails - they boldly climb into the foliage and deface leaves with relish.

If you grow sweet peas in the vegetable garden be careful not to eat the foliage or seed or feed them to animals - Lathyrus spp. contain a neurotoxin, and  horses are more susceptible to the toxin in sweet peas than humans.

Diplarrena moraea and D. latifolia, the Butterfly Flag and the Western Flag Iris respectively, are two Australian members of the Iridaceae. Here in Canberra (600 M -5 C to 40 C 35 S 141 E), I am growing D. latifolia  in a large terracotta  pot - in a well drained gravelly mix,standing on a pot saucer so it won't dry out and tucked near shrubs so it is protected from frost and to much direct sun. I bought the plant last autumn, and it has made good growth through the year - rewarding me with the first flower this week - late summer. I have seen this garden gem in mass flowering in Tasmania (Cradle Mountain) in Summer, so it is worth trying to get established! I went out to take a photo of the flower but over night rain had ruined it!