SWEET PEAS. 



the outside, makes a very pretty object 

 in the garden when covered with flowers 

 of one or two varieties. A great advan 

 tage of this style of trellis is that it can 

 be set up anywhere on a few square feet 

 of ground, and can be shifted from place 

 to place as wanted each season. If one 

 is willing to take the trouble to tie the 

 vines to wires, an ordinary grape vine 

 trellis does very well, with the wires about 

 eight inches apart. 



The insect enemies of the sweet pea 

 are few in number ; cutworms are some- 

 times troublesome, when numerous they 

 may easily be poisoned by placing little 

 bundles of any succulent weed dipped 

 in Paris green and water and laid every 

 two or three feet along the rows, or they 

 may be dug out in the usual way. 



A more serious evil to contend against 

 is the blight ; this is only troublesome 

 in very light soils, or where peas have 

 been grown several years in succession 

 in the same place. It first appears when 

 the plants are about a foot high, the 

 leaves turn yellow, then brown, and, in 

 bad cases, the whole plant becomes black 

 and dies. There is not much known 

 about the causes or nature of the dis- 

 ease, or how to cure it when it appears ; 

 probably spraying with Bordeaux mix- 

 ture is as good a remedy as is available. 



A great deal of what is taken for blight 

 is really caused by that pest of the green- 

 house and window garden — red spider : 

 it is so insignificant in size, that it is sel- 

 dom observed unless looked for, even 

 then it lakes good eyesight to locate him, 

 though the results of his presence are 

 evident enough. Fortunately it is very 

 easily kept in check ; a vigorous spraying 

 now and then from the waterworks hose, 

 if available, or from a spray pump is all 

 that is necessary. 



In describing varieties, shapes and 

 colors run mto one another so much, 

 ih It it is somewhat difficult to classify 



them. In colors, white, red, yellow and 

 blue are so inextricably mixed and blend- 

 ed, that any classification founded on 

 colors is unsatisfactory. 



In shape, there are three fairly well 

 marked divisions ; the first, from which 

 all the newer varieties are derived, has 

 the standard somewhat wedge-shaped 

 and bent back from the rest of the flow- 

 er, or reflexed, as in Painted Lady ; the 

 second, of which B'anche Burpee is a 

 good representative, has the standard 

 straight and erect, with the wings and 

 keel close up to it. In the thiid form, 

 as in Lottie Eckford, the standard is 

 inclined forward at the edge, as if to 

 envelope the wings ; this is known as 

 the hooded form ; many of the most 

 admired new sorts belong to this class. 

 In some cases this tendency of the stand- 

 ard to curve forward is carried so far as 

 to form a roll on each side, as in Oddity : 

 when the bending forward is carried to 

 such an extent, it may be interesting to 

 the specialist from its oddity, but it cer- 

 tainly could not be called beautiful. 



Whether you plant named varieties or 

 mixed, be sure to plant enough. You 

 will be surprised at the number that can 

 be used as cut flowers, not only in your 

 own household, but by your friends. I 

 have yet to see the visitor to my garden 

 that was not delighted to get a bouquet 

 of sweet peas. Give them away freely. 

 If you want to have an abundance of 

 flowers all summer, they must be picked 

 frequently ; never allow them to go to 

 seed. If you plant them mixed, get the 

 best Eckford mixture ; but it is much 

 more satisfactory to buy named varieties, 

 as you can then select such colors as you 

 prefer. Most of the mixtures have too 

 large a proportion of dark colors for the 

 best effect ; in my opinion, not less than 

 four-fifths of a collection should be of 

 light or medium shades. 



