Vol. Ill No. 26. 



APRIL I908. 



r-imSH GAKDENIMO 



A Monthly Educational Journal devoted to 

 the Advancement of Horticulture in Ireland 



A Little Sermon. 



By CHAS. H. CURTIS, Hon. Secretary, National Sweet Pea Society. 



Pea cultivation are 



I HAVE had a "call " — a call from Ireland — 

 and the "call" is to spare a half-hour and 

 write a little " sermon " on the delights of 

 Sweet Pea cultivation The call is irresistible 

 since it comes from Ireland, and from one before 

 whose profundity I once bowed in the Birkbeck 

 Institute. 



The delights of Sweet 

 known only to those who 

 are enthusiasts, for, slightly 

 altering Dean Hole's 

 famous phrase, "those 

 who would have beautiful 

 Sweet Peas in their gardens 

 must have beautiful Sweet 

 I'eas in their hearts." The 

 delights are increased ac- 

 cording as one digs deeply, 

 waters freely, feeds judi- 

 ciously, stakes firmly, 

 mulches liberally, and cuts 

 flowers abundantly. 



It is delightful work in- 

 specting the catalogues of 

 new Sweet Peas ; and what 

 does it matter if the de- 

 scriptions do not quite 

 tally with one's mental and 

 visible notes ? Perhaps we 

 are a bit colour blind. 

 Then there is the pleasure 

 of sending the order and 

 of anticipating its fulfil- 

 ment. We try to look 

 pleasant when we learn 

 that the variety we most particularly wanted is 

 " sold out," or even when we find there are only 

 ten seeds for a shilling. Seed-sowing is vastly 

 interesting, but we soon learn that the pleasure 

 is not all ours when one morning we discovered 

 that birds or slugs have had a feast, and it in- 

 variably happens that the newest varieties suffer 

 the most. 



But why detail all the pleasures of cultivation ? 

 If you know them not, then hasten to procure 



Chas. H. Curtis. 



[Kindly lent by the Editor of the Agricultural Ecotiot/iist.] 



Sweet Pea seeds, and your joy shall be full — 

 with a trifle of trouble and a dash of disappoint- 

 ment perhaps to season the dish withal. It is 

 at flowering time that one experiences the full 

 tide of pleasure. When the butterfly blossoms 

 sit lightly in their thousands over row or clump, 

 and their delightful fragrance pervades the 

 whole of the garden, one feels that labour has 

 not been in vain. How 

 we admire the poise and 

 shape of the blossoms, the 

 stoutness and length of the 

 stems, and how we talk 

 of our " fourers " and 

 "fivers," and how we 

 get to love some of these 

 dainty varieties I 



The delight consists not 

 only in our possession o( 

 beautiful and fragrant 

 flowers in abundance, but 

 in being able to give them 

 away. It is wonderful how 

 the ladies come to know 

 one is a Sweet Pea en- 

 thusiast ; nay, one of the 

 pleasures — and it is not the 

 least — is that one is able 

 to give these floral gems 

 to brighten a hospital ward, 

 to relieve the tedium of a 

 sick room, to sweeten the 

 homes of the squalid, to 

 deck the dinner table, to 

 fill a bride's bouquet, and 

 may be to provide a last token of love for those 

 who rest in God's Acre. 



A fiercer pleasure comes when successful 

 cultivation leads us to enter the show tent or 

 hall, and put our flowers against those of other 

 enthusiasts. We first of all join the National 

 Sweet Pea Society, devour its "annual," try to 

 enthuse all our friends with a love of Sweet Peas, 

 and then we bear their congratulations meekly 

 when we bring home a third prize. But if we 



