Sweet Pea is an annual grown for its blooms, which open from spring through fall. Season length, not a winter zone, decides where it grows. Notably, it shrugs off deer and grows just as well in a container as in the ground. Its flowers are a moderate draw for honeybees and native bees. A nitrogen-fixer, it draws nitrogen from the air and feeds it back to the soil — turn it under or leave the roots in place, and the next planting inherits a richer bed.
Sweet Pea — the short answer
Sweet Pea: grown in zones 2–10, full sun, pH 6–8, about 65 days to maturity.
- USDA zones
- Grown as an annual — see the growing season
- Growing season, not a hardiness zone
- Soil pH
- 6–8
- We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
- Days to Maturity
- 65 days
- We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
- Frost-kill temp (growing season)
- 25°F
- We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Plant data: Growable Ground Plant Database, compiled from FAO ECOCROP, USDA PLANTS and university Extension sources — each tile names its own row's source, because per-field provenance varies.
Score Sweet Pea on your exact land.
Zone averages can't see the slope, soil, frost, and sun that decide whether sweet pea actually takes — and those shift from one yard to the next. Enter your address and we'll score sweet pea against your land's real conditions.
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What Sweet Pea is
Sweet Pea grows as an annual and reaches around six feet at maturity. It blooms from spring through fall. It's also deer-resistant and well suited to containers.
Mature height, bloom period, deer resistance and container suitability: We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
How to grow Sweet Pea
Season length, not a winter zone, decides where sweet pea grows. Sweet Pea does best in full sun — at least 6 hours of direct sun a day — and soil from pH 6 to 8, on well-drained ground. It needs around 500 growing degree days to mature and a growing season of at least 150 frost-free days, which is why climate matters as much as soil.
USDA Zones
Grown as an annual — see the growing season
Soil pH
6 - 8
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Sun
Full Sun
NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
Drainage
well (dry spells)
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Frost Kill Temperature
25°F
Where cold starts killing growing tissue. Not a winter-survival floor — a dormant perennial takes far colder, which its hardiness zone answers.
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Minimum Growing Temperature
39.2°F
Below this it stops growing rather than dies — a pace limit, not a survival limit.
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Days to Maturity
65 days
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
GDD Required
500+
Growing degree-days of accumulated warmth it needs to mature — humid summers reach this faster than cool coastal ones.
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Mature Height
6 ft
We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Frost-Free Days
150+
The frost-free stretch it needs start to finish — short-season areas may need an indoor head start.
Growable Ground plant catalog
Start the season right
Plant sweet pea in full sun with at least 6 hours of direct sun. It grows in the cool halves of the year, so sow it in spring or late summer rather than waiting for midsummer heat.
Match the soil
Sweet Pea prefers pH 6 to 8. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet. A quick soil test from your local Extension lab tells you whether to add lime or sulfur to land in band. It fixes its own nitrogen, so skip the high-nitrogen feed and instead dust the seed with a matching rhizobium inoculant at sowing.
Water steadily
Keep the root zone evenly moist through establishment. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet. A 2–3 inch mulch layer holds moisture without waterlogging.
Harvest at its peak
Cut sweet pea blooms in the cool of the morning, just as they open, for the longest display.
Where Sweet Pea thrives
Season length, not a winter zone, decides where sweet pea grows. Zone is only the starting point, though: the soil pH, drainage, and frost dates on your specific land decide how well it actually does.
A USDA zone is a 10°F band of average annual extreme winter minimum, so zones 2–10 spans average winter lows from -50°F to 40°F (USDA PHZM 2023). Across the 50 states and DC, that band covers 47 outright and splits 4 more down the middle.
Zones 2–10·Hardiness bandOpen map →
Continental US shown — Alaska and US Pacific territories sit outside the federal map's polygon dataset.
This map is derived from the USDA ARS / PRISM Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) and is not the official USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Where Sweet Pea stands, state by state
Sweet Pea is rated for zones 2–10 — a cold floor USDA puts at -50 to -40°F. Across the 50 states and DC, 47 sit fully inside that band, the line runs through 4 more, and 0 sit outside it — and inside every split state, the same line runs on at county grain.
Fully inside zones 2–10
47 states
3 of 47 shown
The line runs through
4 states
- Alaska · zones 1a-9a
- California · zones 4b-11a
- Florida · zones 8b-12a
3 of 4 shown
State zone extents: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM) 2023. A zone is a 10°F band of average annual extreme minimum temperature, so a state that splits the band contains the boundary — its own page draws the county line, and a parcel report resolves which side your land sits on.
What grows around Sweet Pea
Growing guides for sweet pea
In rotation planning, sweet pea counts as a Legume — beds recover best when legume crops don’t follow each other in the same spot year over year. (Growable Ground derivation — crop-rotation group from botanical family)
Related plants in annual flower
Good to know
One caution for pet owners — sweet pea is toxic to dogs and cats (moderate severity). Keep it out of reach, and call ASPCA Animal Poison Control at (888) 426-4435 in an emergency. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Sweet Pea offers moderate value to bees and other pollinators. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Your land is one point inside Sweet Pea's range
This page resolves to the species. Your state page draws the county line, and a report reads the parcel — the soil pH, drainage, sun, and frost dates on your exact ground, which no species average can see.
See if Sweet Pea will thrive on your land
Zone averages are a start. Your soil pH, drainage, sun exposure, and frost dates shape whether sweet pea actually takes. We score it against the mapped and modelled conditions at your address.
Three things about your exact spot that zone averages miss:
We read public map data for this spot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources analyzed in seconds
How we know this about Sweet Pea
The figures above are cited per row, not per site: the pH band names this plant’s own source column, the three temperature figures each carry their own, and days-to-maturity cites the publication that actually lists it. All of it comes from the Growable Ground Plant Database — a compilation over FAO ECOCROP, USDA PLANTS, and university Extension sources, published openly with per-field provenance.
Grounded inUSDA PLANTS Database
Frequently asked questions
Can I grow Sweet Pea in my zone?
Sweet Pea is grown as an annual, so a hardiness zone does not decide it — its growing season follows your last and first frost dates. Soil pH, drainage, and frost dates on your specific parcel also shape whether it takes.
When should you plant Sweet Pea?
Sweet Pea is a cool-season crop, so it goes in during the cool halves of the year — early spring, and again in late summer for a fall planting — rather than at the height of summer heat. Your local frost dates set the exact window — a Growable Ground report reads them for your address.
How much sun does Sweet Pea need?
Sweet Pea needs full sun — a spot that catches at least 6 hours of direct summer sun a day. In more shade it still grows, but usually gives a smaller, later crop. The catch is that a yard rarely gets even light everywhere — a fence, the house, or one tall tree can quietly take those hours. A Growable Ground report reads the real sun-hours across your land, canopy and buildings included, so you can pick the brightest bed before you plant.
What soil does Sweet Pea need?
Sweet Pea prefers soil pH 6 to 8, on well-drained ground. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet. Your report scores your parcel's mapped soil against that using USDA SSURGO data.
Does Sweet Pea attract pollinators?
Yes — sweet pea's flowers are a solid nectar source for honeybees and native bees. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Is Sweet Pea safe for pets?
Sweet Pea is toxic to dogs and cats with moderate severity. Keep it out of reach, and call ASPCA Animal Poison Control at (888) 426-4435 in an emergency. We haven't confirmed this against a published source yet.
Keep exploring Sweet Pea
Sweet Pea state by state
Every state sweet pea's zone reaches — 30 link straight to that state's sweet pea growing page; the rest open the state's full growing guide.