Getting to this point has been a slow process other years. Sometimes I sit on the front porch and open the sweet pea pods. Occasionally, they pop as I handle them and seeds fly away. It’s a relaxing ritual but this year I found a new way to save seeds for my favorite winter garden flower.

I’ve been growing this bicolor sweet pea in my coastal garden for over twenty-five years. By saving the seed and replanting the next year, they are especially adapted to my garden conditions. You can purchase seeds for this sweet pea at San Diego Seed Company. I shared seed with Brijette and she was so taken by them she named them Point Loma Pops and offers them for sale on her site. Now is the perfect time to plant them if you garden in a warm winter area like SoCal.

I put the saved seed pods that had been sitting in my garage since late last spring into a paper bag.

Then here’s the time saver. Since the seeds are very hard I used my feet to release the seeds from the dried pods. Why didn’t I think of this before?

Most of the seeds are released and I put the empty pods in the compost bin.

I winnowed the seeds and then prepared them for planting on the trellis in the vegetable garden.

I selected the seeds that had already split open and soaked them overnight. They went in the ground in late September. The germination rate was high.

And now, about a month later, they reach for the trellis, growing well in the warm winter sun.