For many Kiwis, new lambs and daffodils are the first signs that spring is imminent. 

Technically spring begins on the 1st of September and I always get excited for my garden to shoot away and, with any luck, erupt into colour.

Even though, as I write this, it still very much feels like winter, now is a great time to pop in some spring colour seedlings. At this time of year, I’m all about planting sweet peas and poppies – two ‘no-fuss’ bright annuals, that’ll inject some fun colour in flower beds.

Sweet peas are a classic favourite in the garden. I love them because they’re easy to grow and the scented variety smells amazing. Sweet peas are prolific climbers – trailing their way 2.5m high in the right conditions. They’re ideal to climb up stakes and fences, or enhance (or disguise) a garden feature.

So what are the right conditions for planting sweet peas? They like a well-drained and sunny spot in your garden. Perhaps along a fence line, or a trellis to climb up. You can grab sweet pea seedlings from Awapuni Nurseries online shop and have them delivered direct to your door. We guarantee satisfaction and if you’re not completely satisfied with your plants when they arrive, we’ll replace them.

At Awapuni, we sell two varieties of tall sweet peas – a cut flower mix and Fragrant beauty. The cut flowers mix has especially good blooms, and the fragrant beauty is an old-fashioned variety with extra fragrance.  We also stock a dwarf variety growing to 40cm tall – making it perfect for pots, as bedding flowers or cascading over the side of a hanging basket.

Once you’ve got your seedlings, simply dig small holes 3cm deep, around 15cm apart. And here’s my best advice – don’t hold back! When it comes to sweet peas, a thick crop looks fantastic, so plant on all sides of your garden feature, a couple rows deep if possible. Come two to three months’ time you’ll have a wall of spectacular colour.

When they do start flowering, pick regularly to encourage more blooms. They make great cut flowers, either in a posy on their own or as part of a spring flower arrangement. If you keep up your watering, your sweet peas will continue to impress right through summer.

Once you’ve sorted your sweet peas, I recommend planting some poppies in front for a cottage garden feel. 

Poppies look great in many garden settings – I love them in vast spaces where they can really run wild. And they self-seed from year to year, always keeping your garden interesting.

Awapuni Nurseries California ballerina mix come in an array of pinks, reds, yellows and oranges. They grow to around 40cm and look best planted in mass – creating a wild look with their double fluted flowers.

If you’re after a more organised colour scheme, Anzac poppies also grow to 40cm but in a lovely, deep red. Shirley mix produces pink and red flowers with multiple fluffy layers of flowering petals and reaches around 60cm tall. Lastly, our peony mixed poppies are taller still – around 90cm, and flower in pink, red, and white. Also, the peony poppies are great for people whose climate is too warm to grow peony tubers.

You can grab all of these poppy varieties from the Awapuni Nurseries online shop. Once you’ve got your seedlings, plant them in a sunny spot, around 30cm apart. Give them a good initial watering, to help them get established. After that, just light watering is fine, and try not to apply too much pressure when watering, as you can squash your poppies.

In around six to eight weeks a wave of colour should start blooming in your flower beds. Remember to dead-head the flowers when they die, and they’ll keep on popping spring colour into your garden for many months.