December, 1914 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



289 



The Sweet Pea— A Queen of the Annuals* 



H. M. Lay, Walkcrton, Ont. 



THE sweet pea may justly be called 

 the Queen of Annuals. Its beauty 

 and grace of form, delicacy and 

 variety of color, sweetly subtle perfume, 

 its hardiness, above all the length of its 

 flowering season, are striking qualities 

 which accounts for the afi'ection with 

 which it is regarded. During the last 

 ten years the sweet pea has become so 

 popular in America as well as in Great 

 Britain, and so many useful manuals on 

 its culture have been written by prac- 

 tical florists that as a novice I feel it 

 diflScult to say anything that others more 

 competent have not already touched up- 

 on. I take comfort, however, from the 

 knowledge that from Adam down all gar- 

 deners have to do each for himself, the 

 spade work which is perennially neces- 

 sary, elementary though digging may 

 be. 



This charming flower came to us from 

 the sun-kissed island of Sicily. In its 

 native home it enjoyed a warm climate, 

 tempered by the humidity of the Medi- 

 terranean breezes. It is, however, not 

 the only islander who has borne trans- 

 planting well and who contrives to thrive 

 in more rigorous climates than that of 

 his own "tight little island." We read 

 that an ecclesiastic in that country about 

 two hundred years ago first sent seed to 

 his friends in England and Holland. So 

 we see that a useful function of modern 

 horticultural societies was anticipated 

 long ago. No very great progress, how- 

 ever, in its culture appears to have been 

 attained until the last forty years or so, 

 as in a work on gardening called the 

 "Florists' Guide," published in 1857, 

 the height of sweet peas is given as from 

 three to four feet. The modern books 

 hold out hopes of even ten or fifteen feet 

 of glorious flower bedecked vines. 



Whether we determine to have one row 

 or a dozen in our garden, it is important 

 that we should plant the best seed to be 

 had. There are a number of growers 

 who make a specialty of sweet pea seed, 

 and if we purchase from those who have 

 won their spurs on the exhibition stand, 

 we can have some assurance of success. 



PBEPAEATION OF THE GEOUND 



You may have very fair results from 

 planting your seeds in the spring, in 

 ground that has had merely ordinary 

 good cultivation, but it is satisfactory to 

 the enthusiast to know that no flower 

 responds more delightedly to kind treat- 

 ment. In igii the London "Daily Mail" 

 offered a series of valuable prizes for the 

 best bunch of sweet peas. The result 

 was a magnificent exhibition of thou- 

 sands of bunches of sweet peas. The 

 first prize was j^i.ooo, and both it and 



•Extract from a paper read during November 

 at tho annual convention of the Ontario Ilor- 

 tioultural Association. 



the third prize were won by a Scottish 

 clergyman, the Rev. D. Denholm Era- 

 ser. Mr. Eraser has written a charm- 

 ing and exhaustive little book on sweet 

 peas. He tells us 'that the winning; 

 blooms were grown in his kitchen gar- 

 den where at a depth of three feet there 

 was no sign of the rich loam giving out. 

 After reading this I believed in the truth 

 of the saying, "wherever in the world 

 vou find anything good, you find a Scots- 

 man sitting down beside it." With such 

 a garden, we wonder less at his success, 

 for most of us, I fancy, cannot scrape so 

 deeply without exhausting the "pay- 

 streak." In my own garden, after re- 

 moving the top spit or spadeful, I find 

 room for improvement. 



A good plan is to mark out the pro- 

 posed row at least three or four feet 

 wide, dig out the first two spits, throw- 

 ing them on separate sides of the trench. 

 The bottom spit is then turned over and 

 any stones that may be met with are re- 

 moved. The bottom of the trench is 

 then spread with a layer of farmyard 

 manure, about three inches in depth. 

 This is thoroughly dug into the soil so 

 as to induce deep rooting. On the top 

 of this comes a liberal sprinkling of bone 

 meal, say two or three ounces to the 

 yard. The trench is then gradually fill- 

 ed with soil and alternate layers of good, 

 rich farmyard manure and bone meal, 

 using the soil from the second spit first. 



and keeping the good soil for the last. 

 At least a day should be allowed for 

 settling, longer, if possible. The sur- 

 face is then raked smooth. A good 

 sprinkling of soot is beneficial as a top 

 dressing, both before and after sowing. 



SELECTING VARIETIES 



There are about a thousand varieties 

 of sweet peas. About half of these are 

 the newer Spencer or waved varieties — 

 descendants of their famous ancestor. 

 Countess Spencer, first introduced at the 

 exhibition of the British National Sweet 

 Pea Society in 1904. The amateur who 

 has only a limited space may feel rather 

 perplexed in choosing from many lists 

 of these beautiful flowers that might be 

 made up. Of some fifty varieties which 

 I have attempted to grow, the greatest 

 favorites were among the following : 



White, Burpee's White; Cream, Prim- 

 rose and Queen Victoria ; Scarlet, Scar- 

 let Empress ; Crimson, King Edward 

 VII; Carmine, George Herbert; Orange, 

 Thos. Stevenson ; Pink, Constance Oli- 

 ver, Gladys Burt, Elfrida Pearson ; 

 Mauve, Florence Nightingale, Tennant, 

 Irish Belle; Maroon, Othello; Variegat- 

 ed, Dainty, Mrs. C. W. Breadmore,Mrs. 

 Cuthbertson. 



Sweet Peas require constant attention 

 during the season, but what other flower 

 is there to which you can go day after 

 day for nearly four months and always be 

 sure of an abundance of lovely bloom? 

 If one does not undertake their culture 

 on too ambitious a scale, the labor will 

 lie one of love and well repaid by the 

 health and joy it will bring with it. 



A View in th* Garden of Mr. H. M. Lay, Walkerton, Ont. 



Mr Lav has had unusual eucoese as a grower of sweet peae. among other honors, <!apturing 



m-izee at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition. The bed in the foreground is made up of canna*, 



balsams, stocks and dianthus. with a border of blue lobeUa. 



