42 



IRISH GARDENING. 



MARCH 



Sweet Peas for the Garden, 



By H. J. R. DiGtiES. 



IT is rather iate in Uie day to advocate sweet peas 

 for g-arden decoration ; every garden lover knows 

 that there is nothing so useful for decoration as 

 they can be adapted to such a variety of purposes. 

 What can be more suitable at the back of the herbaceous 

 border than clumps or rows of sweet peas? What can 

 so effectually hide an ugl}' corner or an unsightly wall, 

 or cover an old tree stump or a stiff-looking ircUis? 

 Such things too often intrude in our gardens, but when 

 clothed with sweet peas in their varied hues and wealth 

 of bloom they become an added pleasure to all our other 

 beauty. So far for the negative form of decoration ; but 

 what of the positive? Some swear by rows, others by 



chunps ; the plants can be more easilv trained and 

 attended to in rows, while the growths are more likel}' 

 to become choked in the centre of the clumps unless 

 careful training and judicious thinning is observed ; the 

 blooms can be more easily gathered in the rows, but for 

 simple and effective garden decoration clumps are un- 

 doubtedly the best, especially if one has a lawn on 

 which they can be dotted in a well thought-out 

 haphazard fashion. 



Sow your seeds at once ; there is not a moment to be 

 lost if 3'our rows or stations are ready (as they ought 

 to be), sow in the open, three inches apart, having 

 previously taken out a trench six inches deep ; cover the 

 seeds with two inches of the surface earth, and make 

 tolerably firm. This will leave two inches for earthing up 

 the young plants and still leave a slight trench for 

 retaining the water, when the watering-can or hose has 

 to be brought into requisition. If the ground is not 

 ready, sow in pots, five seeds in a five inch pot ; or 

 singly in three inch pots if you do not grudge the time 

 or trouble, the seedlings can then be planted out 

 without disturbance at the proper distance from each 

 other, and will grow on without a check, Pl.tce the pots 



in a cool frame, and keep covered until I lie seedlings 

 appear ; the covers should then be left off during the day 

 to encourage sturdy and hardy growth. 



In the preparation of the ground almost every grower 

 has his own special theory or plan. The chief point to 

 remember is that sweet peas require at least eighteen 

 inches deep of root-run, that they are good feeders, and 

 that the plants should be at least six inches apart ; if 

 you can give more space and depth you will have 

 better results and a greater quantity of bloom. If the 

 subsoil is hungry (gravel or sand) it is a good plan to 

 place a layer of turves, grass downwards, in the bottom 

 of the trench to conserve some of the stimulants you 

 administer when the plants are in full bloom, and yet 

 not to allow a stagnation of moisture. Fill in your 

 trench then with the surface earth, to which should be 

 added a liberal allowance of well-rotled stable or farm- 

 yard manure, and, perhaps, some of the special 

 mixtures prepared for sweet peas, which mostly consist 

 of bone meal, but above all things be careful not to over- 

 feed. The ground must be rich in food, not stodged, for 

 it is generally admitted now that the streak disease 

 which has been so prevalent in many gardens has been 

 caused by overfeeding in rich ground. 



For supports boughs of hazel, beech or birch are the 

 best. If these cannot be procured wire-netting (four 

 inch mesh) makes a good substitute, a smaller mesh 

 is very troublesome, for it is often necessary to get one's 

 iiand into the centre of the clump to gather the blooms 

 or to train the growths. The netting can be supported bv 

 stakes one and a-half inches thick and eight feet high, 

 four of these to each clump, fastened together at top 

 iiv crosspieces, this will make a support strong enough 

 Ivi withstand anvthing short of a hurricane. 



The clumps may be from two to three feet in diameter, 

 the earth being left saucer shape to catch the water. 

 The seedlings should be planted in a cii-cle inside the 

 wire netting, and trained through as the\' grow, to hide 

 the supports ; this can be further improved upon bv 

 planting some surface-rooting, herbaceous plants or 

 annuals outside the netting to cover the lower part, 

 which the growths of the sweet peas will not hide. 



Individual tastes must be brought into play in the 

 selection of colours and varieties, but no garden should 

 be without Dorothy Eckford (white), King Edward \TI. 

 (crimson). Miss VVilmott (orange pink), and Mrs. 

 Walter Wright (mauve). None of the newer kinds excel 

 these for substance and depth of colour. The waved 

 varieties are, of course, most popular ; but there is 

 such a thing as an excess of waviness, the blooms being 

 more like crumpled tissue paper than anything else. 

 The following selection will be found most satisfactorv 

 for display, giving a great wealth of flowers all through 

 the season, exquisite colours, huge blooms, and yet no 

 coarseness or extravagance of form: — Helen Lewis 

 (orange pink), John Ingman (rose carmine), Helen 

 Pierce (marbled blue), Mrs. Hardcastle Sykes (blush), 

 Marjorie Willis (rich rose), Constance Oliver (buff 

 shaded pink), Evelyn Hemus (cream with rose edge), 

 Dodwell F. Browne (bright crimson), Mrs. Charles 

 Masters (rosv salmcn), Menie Christie (purplish mauve), 

 Etta Dyke (while), Frank Dolby (mauve). These are all 

 waved varieties, thoroughly reliable, most useful for 

 gtirden or table tU'Coralion, antl unexcelletl for exhibition. 



