92 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



SWEET PEAS. 



WEET Peas are so ornamental and effective in appear- 

 ance when in bloom, and yield such a profusion of 

 blossoms for furnishing vases, etc., during the summer 

 months, that they cannot well be grown too exten- 

 sively. We are fond of having vases of cut flowers in 

 all the principal rooms when we can obtain the flowers, and we 

 certainly find the sweet peas our very best friends during the prin- 

 cipal part of the season. In reality they require no skill to grow 

 them well, yet many amateurs fail in cultivating them satisfactorily. 

 They are generally treated as half-hardy annuals, and are conse- 

 quently short-lived, and do not continue in bloom so long as they 

 otherwise would do. For many years we used to raise them in 

 pots in heat and plant them out when about six inches in height ; 

 but at last the demand upon our frames became so great that we 

 determined to sow the seed out of doors and let them take care of 

 themselves. We were at first afraid that the spring frosts would 

 injure them, but of course our fears were groundless, because they 

 are quite as hardy as the hardiest of the peas grown for culinary 

 purposes. We now make two sowings, one in November for 

 flowering early, and the other in March to succeed them. Where, 

 from the unfavourable character of the soil, it is not considered 

 desirable to sow peas of any kind in the autumn, the first sowing 

 may be made the first week in February, or as soon afterwards as 

 the weather and the state of the soil will permit. 



There is another point in their culture worthy of mention, and 

 that is, to insure a continuous supply of flowers during the longest 

 period possible, they must be grown in comparatively rich soil. We 

 usually have a few clumps down the middle of a mixed border, at a 

 distance of about ten feet apart, and a long row in the kitchen- 

 garden expressly to cut from. We have entirely given up planting 

 them in the narrow borders in front of the shrubberies, because the 

 roots of the shrubs draw so much of the moisture and goodness out 

 of the soil, that after a week or two of dry and hot summer weather 

 the leaves begin to turn yellow and the flowers to cease to make their 

 appearance. In many gardens the shrubbery border is selected for 

 growing a few sweet peas, and consequently they are considered to 

 be short-lived. The soil cannot be too rich, and we sow those in the 

 kitchen-garden in trenches prepared in much the same manner as 

 for celery. We first have thrown out the top spit on one side of 

 the trench, and the man then breaks up the soil underneath to a 

 depth of not less than eighteen inches, mixing with it as he proceeds 

 not less than six inches of manure. When that part of the work is 

 completed, the soil thrown out of the trench is returned to it, 

 when the peas are to be sown in the autumn ; but for those sown in 

 the spring a portion only is returned, so that the surface of the soil 

 where they are sown shall be two or three inches below the general 

 level. When sown in a shallow trench they can be watered very 

 easily, and the roots are not so soon affected by dry or hot weather. 



