Rich pickings

ONE of the joys of summer is picking bunches of sweet peas from the garden on a warm evening. Yet this pleasure can be extended to include a wide range of cut flowers that are just as easy to grow as sweet peas.

Known as cut-and-come-again plants, these are mostly annuals and biennials. As well as sweet peas, the group includes cornflowers, zinnias, nigella, sweet Williams and snapdragons. Years ago, these non-stop bloomers were grown in cottage gardens to provide a summer-long