Sweet Pea Culture 



By Edwin Jenkins. 



I was led to choose the Sweet Pea as a subject for my 

 discourse for several good and substantial reasons : First, 

 because this beautiful annual is perhaps more truly 

 "everybody's flower" than even the rose or any other 

 plant in cultivation. For its seed can be purchased for 

 the merest trifle and it will grow, and give some returns 

 in the shape of graceful, sweet scented blossoms, even in 

 the city yard, or in a tub, or under almost any sort of ad- 

 verse conditions. Secondly, because the sweet pea above 

 any other plant responds to good cultivation and liberal 

 treatment by yielding to vis a magnificent display of 

 flowers over a long period and forms a grand exception 

 to the old adage which says "You can't have your cake 

 and eat it, too," for the more sweet peas you pick the 

 more you have, and, in fact, if you don't pick them you 

 won't have them for very long. The rose and the carna- 

 tion are sometimes so improved by the hybridist as to 

 lose one of their greatest charms, their perfume, but not 

 so with our favorite. No matter how we improve the 

 sweet pea it is the szccct pea still. 



While realizing that you expect from me practical cul- 

 tural remarks, I feel sure that you will pardon a brief 

 excursion into the history of the introduction to cultiva- 

 tion and the subsequent development of the sweet pea to 

 its present measure of perfection, believing as we do 

 that the pleasure and fascination of the cultivation of any 

 plant is enhanced by a knowledge of its histor}-. 



As it is almost certain that the sweet pea reached 

 America through Great Britain, we must go back there for 

 a glimpse of its earlier development. About the last year 

 of the seventeenth century an Italian priest named Cu- 

 pani found the sweet pea growing wild in the island of 

 Sicily and sent some plants of it to a Doctor Uvedale, at 

 Enfield, in England. We do not know much about it 

 from this date, for the next hundred years or more, but 

 suppose it to have been cultivated to some extent. Tn 

 1820 some six colors or shades were listed and in 1860 

 there were nine. Then, about 1877, commenced the great 

 Eckford epoch, when varieties and shades of colors w*fe're" 

 multiplied with great frequency, together with an in- 

 crease in size and substance. This period of deyelopment 

 continued without interruption till about the dawn of the 

 twentieth century, when the sweet pea world was de- 

 lightfully astonished by the advent of the waved stand- 

 ard, better known as the Spencer type. .\s this type 

 reigns supreme today, 'at least among the summer-flower- 

 ing kinds, we may well spare a minute to note this won- 

 derful occurrence and to observe that when the sweet 

 pea had reached such a stage of development that she was 

 ready to make a break, or as gardeners call it, "to sport," 

 and she did so in three different places the same season, 

 viz. : in Earl Spencer's garden, in Northamptonshire 

 (whence the name of Spencer), and with Mr. Unwin, at 

 Cambridge : also with Mr. Eckford, at Wem, in Shrop- 

 shire. This tendency to break in several different sec- 

 tions the same year has been noted in some other plants, 

 and one might argue that it was a sign that nature was 

 jealous and opposed to monopoly. The old grandiflora 

 variety Prima Donna appears to have been the chief 

 factor as a parent of the Spencers, and its general tend- 

 ency to throw four flowers to each stem seems to have 

 been transmitted as a characteristic of the Spencers. The 

 last few years have brought still another change in du- 

 plex standards and occasionally duplex pedals. What 

 the future may have in store we know not, but that great- 

 er glories await us in the future the past gives us every 

 reason to hope and to believe. 



The next phase we have to consider is how to treat 

 the sweet pea so as to get a maximum of quality and 

 quantity. The ordinary everyday method is to sow the 

 seed in rows very thickly as soon as the ground is ready 

 to work in spring ; then with the exception of giving 

 supports of some kind, the grower leaves the plants to 

 take care of themselves until the flowers appear, and on 

 some naturally rich soil, if perchance the rainfall is more 

 than ordinarily abundant, very good results may now and 

 then follow. However, the true lover and sweet pea en- 

 thusiast will not be satisfied by any such uncertain meth- 

 ods, but will cast about to find means whereby success is 

 more nearly assured. 



Apart from good seed, the fundamental basis, the all 

 important foundation of success lies in the proper prepar- 

 ation of the soil, and if this operation is shirked or in any 

 wax skimmed over, your efforts will in a large measure 

 be set at naught, and disappointment will almost suiely 

 be your lot, unless you are fortunate enough to possess 

 (ine of those rare conditions of an ideal soil, rich, deep 

 and porous. Possessing this, you might well ignore this 

 part dealing with the preparation of the soil, but as in 

 about 95 per cent, of the cases we are only blest with 

 about six to eight inches of tolerably good soil we must 

 labor heartily to improve this so that we may have from 

 24 to 30 inches of well manured compost. The time to 

 do this to the best advantage is during the months of 

 September and October, as at this time the ground is 

 usuallv in good condition for manceuvering. Generally 

 work is not so pressing as in spring, and, further, it gives 

 time for settling of the soil before planting. 



Let me now describe the method which I have found 

 verv sati.sfactory, though making no claims to superioritjf 

 over other methods. Assuming a hypothetical case of 

 six rows, ea^h 50 feet long, we would lay out a rectangur 

 lar plot 36 feet by 50, and on the shorter, or 36-foot, side, 

 three feet from the corner, set a stake, then every six 

 fe^t a stake until the six rows are indicated. Stakes 

 should be placed opposite each other at both ends and 

 should denote the center of each row. Now, commenci- 

 ing on the 50-foot side^ we remove the top nine inches t^ 

 soil from three feet oi*i both sides of the center of row 

 one and place it outside of our plot entirely, to be later 

 carted or wheeled to finish the last row. The top soil 

 being removed, we dig a trench (always using the end 

 stakes as a center) 18 inches deep and two feet wide, 

 placing the subsoil removed on either side of the trench 

 where the good topsoil has just been dug off. Then, 

 commencing on row two, we remove the topsoil ofif the 

 six feet wide and to the same depth as before and use it 

 for filling trench one, but not without mixing about a 

 ton of half decayed farm-yard manure and 50 pounds 

 each on bonemeal and woodashes, also about two pounds 

 of well pulverized sulphate of iron, being sure at all times 

 to thoroughly incorporate the whole mixture. Proceed 

 thus to the last row. when soil from row one will be used 

 for filling. As each row is finished endeavor to leave the 

 soil ridged up, so as to give the frost a chance to do all 

 the disintegrating possible. That all this sounds like fi 

 heavy task T kiiow full well, but if vou would have good, 

 long stemmed peas, from the middle of June till at least 

 the middle of September, this, or some modification of this 

 method, must be followed. 



Having prepared the soil, we next come by logical 

 sequence to the sowing of the seed, and by all means 

 spare no eflfort to secure good seed from a reliable seeds- 

 man. Tf von would not be disappointed in securing some 



