AUTUMN AND SPRING SOWING 65 



the winter's frosts have done their beneficent work of 

 breaking up and sweetening it, advantage may be taken of 

 the first spell of favourable weather to make a sowing 

 outdoors in February, giving preference to the latter half 

 of the month for beginning operations. This advice 

 needs to be qualified, however, by saying that only in 

 specially warm and sheltered situations would we care to 

 commence sowing thus early. In open, bleak and trying 

 quarters, where the soil is also altogether too wet for an 

 early sowing, we should defer sowing until a later period, 

 when success is more likely to attend our efforts. Sowings 

 made outdoors in February will, in a normal season, 

 ensure the development of a free display of blossoms by 

 late June or early July, thus giving growers, whose 

 gardens are situated in favourable quarters, an advantage 

 in point of time of no mean order. 



From what we have observed for years past, the 

 general consensus of opinion among growers is in favour 

 of sowings made in early March. The first favourable 

 opportunity should be taken in this month to make a 

 sowing of Sweet Peas, with the object of producing a 

 free display of blossoms throughout the summer months, 

 from early July onwards. With very few exceptions 

 Sweet Peas may be sown in March without any risk 

 whatsoever. Growers whose gardens are situated in the 

 coldest aspects, where the soil is about as cold and 

 uncharitable as it is possible to be, will do well to 

 defer their sowings until the first week in April. We 

 make a sowing towards the end of April for providing a 

 display of flowers of good quality in the late summer 

 and early autumn, and find this has many advantages 

 over the ordinary method of endeavouring to maintain 

 Sweet Peas, that were raised earlier, in good form and 

 condition until this period. 



