It's so exciting to see buds emerging on your sweet peas! You check them regularly for progress looking forward to the flowers and then suddenly - nothing! All the buds are gone and all you can see is an empty stem. If this has happened to you, then read on..

Don't be too sad, because this is a problem that usually goes away all on its own and is likely caused by fluctuations with the temperature of your environment. It is not caused by disease. Individual buds on the stem will fail to develop fully, they will then start to turn yellow and then drop off before they fully develop.

This perplexing problem is simply know as bud drop - there isn't any fancy name for it!

Buds will not re-grow on your now bare and empty stems, so you can just cut them off. Once temperatures start to even out, sweet pea bud drop will usually stop and the flowers will grow from other new stems.

Other factors that may contribute to bud drop are low light levels, too much nitrogen in the soil, drying winds and drought.