534 



HORTICULTURE, 



October 15, 1910 



olutionary secrets in her keeping? 

 Sliall I have to modify the first sen- 

 tence of this paragraph when I write 

 an introduction to the twenty-fifth edi- 

 tion of the present work? I know not. 

 All I know is that in this, the tenth 

 year of the twentieth century, the 

 waved sweet pea reigns. 



"It reigns supreme, unchallenged. It 

 has taken the sweet pea world by 

 storm, and by the appeal of its won- 

 derful beauty has brought thousands 

 of new devotees into the fold. All the 

 world yields to its beauty and grace." 



The original sweet pea of this new 

 Giant Waved type was found in 1900 

 at Althorp Park, Northampton, Eng- 

 land, by Mr. Silas Cole, gardener lo 

 Countess Spencer — after whom it was 

 named. Mr. Cole seems to think it 

 was the result of a cross of Prima 

 Donna with another seedling made in 

 1899. The tact, however, that the same 

 waved form of flower, although of 

 smaller sixe (Gladys Unwin) was found 

 by W. J. Unwin, of Histon, Cambridge- 

 shire, England, and also identically 

 the same variety as Cole's Spencer was 

 found in a row of Prima Donna in the 

 gardens of Henry Eckford, would seem 

 to prove that this new type has been 

 entirely "created" by nature without 

 any immediate aid from man — a sort 

 of natural, or rather ought I to say 

 unnatural, and most remarkable evolu- 

 tion? 



My friend, Mr. Robert Sydenham, of 

 Birmingham, England, purchased the 

 original stock of Countess Spencer 

 from Mr. Cole and sent the seed to us 

 in 1902 to grow for him. He intro- 

 duced this variety in England in 1904. 

 With his kind permission we first of- 

 fered it the following year (1905) in 

 America, and at the same time intro- 

 duced also Mrs. Sydenham or Orange 

 Countess (which is now known as 

 Helen Lewis), and Florence Spencer, 

 a selected strain of which is now 

 known as Florence Morse Spencer. In 

 this same season of 1905 we introduced 

 a mixture which we called "The New 

 Race of Gigantic Orchid-flowered 

 Sweet Pea Seedlings of Countess Spen- 

 cer." At the same time we had, of 

 course, advised our friend Mr. Syden- 

 ham, of the remarkable "break" in 

 Countess Spencer and told him that 

 in a few years from separate selections 

 being made we hoped to have many 

 different colors. We did not realize 

 then how difficult it would be to fix 

 these sports of Countess Spencer, nor 

 in fact how much careful selection and 

 re-selection would be necessary to 

 really establish even the original 

 Countess Spencer and the other two 

 varieties introduced that year (1905) 

 on a basis of fixity where they could 

 be depended upon to come true from 

 seed. 



The tendency of the original Countess 

 and all her children to sport has been, 

 however, really a blessing in disguise, 

 for now by careful work on the part 

 of American and English growers not 

 less than forty or fifty varieties have 

 been fixed so that they come prac- 

 tically true from seed. None but the 

 grower, or those in close touch with 

 the growing of sweet peas can have 

 any idea, however, of rhe amount of 

 patience and time involved in this 

 selecting and reselecting. 



In the grandiflora type of sweet 

 peas it was rarely that the same 

 sport, or seedling of the same charac- 

 ter occurred in more than one place. 



The same year that Henry Eckford 

 introduced the Duchess of Sutherland 

 we introduced Modesty and both 

 proved identical. The same year 

 Messrs. House & Son introduced Lord 

 Nelson we introduced Burpee's Bril- 

 liant Blue— both proved identical. The 

 only other case of identity in new 

 varieties of grandiflora type which I 

 can now recall is that after intro- 

 ducing Aurora the next season in vis- 

 iting my friend, the late Henry Eck- 

 ford, at his home in Wem, he showed 

 me where he had the same variety, 

 hut had not up to that time intro- 

 duced it. 



The fact that frequently the same 

 colors in Spencers have occurred sim- 

 ultaneously with different growers in 

 England and in America shows al- 

 most conclusively that these were all 

 "creations" of nature, or sports, rather 

 than the result of cross-breeding by 

 man, although of course, such new 

 varieties were only made possible by 

 the breaking up into different colors 

 and advancing of the grandiflora type 

 by the late Henry Eckford, who well 

 deserves his imperishable fame as the 

 "Father of Sweet Peas." 



In most cases the new varieties of 

 the Spencer type have retained the 

 same coloring as the grandiflora va- 

 rieties. For this reason and to pre- 

 vent confusion we adopted the plan 

 of giving descriptive names with the 

 word Spencer added, — as in the case 

 of Burpee's White and Primrose 

 Spencers, Apple Blossom Spencer, 

 Aurora Spencer and King Edward 

 Spencer. One illustration of the oc- 

 currence of practically the same new 

 Spencers in England and America it 

 might be worth while to mention. In 

 1908 at the luncheon given by Mr. 

 Leonard Sutton at Reading, England, 

 to the visiting members of the Na- 

 tional Sweet Pea Society of England, 

 in his introductory remarks he said 

 that while the Spencer type of sweet 

 peas was making wonderful progress 

 he thought it would be a long while 

 before any sweet pea could become 

 more popular, or more beautiful than 

 that named for His Majesty, King Ed- 

 ward VII. In replying I told Mr. Sut- 

 ton and his guests that the Vice- 

 President of the Society, Mr. Cuth- 

 bertson, whose gardens I had just vis- 

 ited in Essex, and ourselves each had 

 a Spencer form of King Edward VII 

 ready for introduction in 1909, but 

 that I would gladly agree to call it 

 King Edward Spencer. After further 

 consultation with Mr. Cuthbertson he 

 thought, however, that his was a lit- 

 tle different from ours and, therefore, 

 his firm (Messrs. Dobbie & Co. of 

 Scotland) introduced theirs the same 

 year as "The King." 



It is worthy of note that the varie- 

 ties of Spencer Sweet Peas, which 

 are of the same color as existing va- 

 rieties of the grandiflora type, gener- 

 ally come more readily true to color 

 than do those which combine with 

 the distinctive large waved form of 

 the Spencers also new colorings. 

 While King Edward Spencer and "The 

 King" both came quite true from seed 

 yet Mrs. Routzahn, which we intro- 

 duced the same year, being of an en 

 tirely new combination of colors 

 (light apricot and straw) sported so 

 badly that an entirely new reselection 

 was necessary. Similar coloring in- 

 troduced in England (Mrs. Henry 

 Bell) behaved in like manner. We 



have had a like experience, much to 

 our regret, the past season Of the 

 four varieties introduced this seasos 

 by Messrs. Morse and ourselves Sen- 

 ator Spencer, Marie Corelli and W. T. 

 Hutchlns come quite true, while th3 

 beautiful Miriam Beaver (deep apri- 

 cot and straw) has broken so com- 

 pletely that we shall have to with- 

 draw this variety from sale probably 

 for several years at least. 



Our trials show that new English 

 varieties possessing new combinations 

 of coloring sent out this season with 

 equally good faith have also behaved 

 in a similar manner so that it will re- 

 quire considerable courage and pa- 

 tience to persist in reselection and 

 establishment of these new colors. 



One word more about the curious 

 sportive character of the Spencer 

 type. We were very pleased with the 

 trueness to type of the selected stocks 

 of Spencers this season on our own 

 farm and the farms of several other 

 growers in Santa Barbara and Santa 

 Clara counties, but noticed one of the 

 most remarkable examples of sporting 

 that we have ever seen. The best re- 

 selected stock of George Herbert, in 

 fact, a stock that originated with our 

 friends, Messrs. C. C. Morse & Co. 

 (and to which their Chinese gardener, 

 Henry Ohn, in his enthusiasm had 

 given the name of James Lick) we 

 found ']oth growing on their grounds 

 and on our own came absolutely true 

 except for one sport and that was a 

 white-seeded white Spencer of which 

 there was fully 5 to 8 per cent Ex- 

 amination of the seed left over from 

 planting showed that tliere was not a 

 single white seed in the lot. We have 

 allowed a few plants of this white to 

 stand, — marking same to see whether 

 we should have to lose all faith in 

 being able to tell when in bloom a 

 white-seeded white from a black- 

 seeded white! 



With the splendid work now being 

 done by the National Sweet Pea So- 

 ciety of England seconded by our 

 own new American Sweet Pea So- 

 ciety growers generally are awaken- 

 ing to the fact that the fair fame of 

 new introductions in the Spencer type 

 rests largely with them in being able 

 to restrain their enthusiasm for at 

 least a year after they consider they 

 have sufficiently established a new 

 color ready for introduction. 



The seed of sweet peas of the true 

 Spencer type can never be produced 

 nearly so cheap as the grandiflora 

 type. The rogulng that Is necessary 

 is not merely to remove off colors, 

 but also to see that the type be not 

 allowed to deteriorate to the grandi- 

 flora form. Wliile most free blooming 

 the true Spencers have the unfortu- 

 nate characteristic of dropping the 

 majority of their blooms without set- 

 ting pods. So noticeable is this that 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle of London 

 last September said: "It would not be 

 an exaggeration to say that some of the 

 choicest Spencers do not yield a tenth 

 of what the old varieties do, and this 

 in a favorable season." 



If the Spencar type of sweet pea is 

 to maintain and extend its present 

 popularity growers generally must aim 

 at quality and be satisfied with a 

 much smaller quantity of seed from 

 a given area than has ever been recog- 

 nized as a good crop of the older 

 types. 



