CHAPTER XVIII 

 WHY BUDS FALL EARLY IN THE SEASON 



COMPLAINTS regarding Sweet Pea buds falling, are rife 

 in the early part of the flowering period, and many 

 growers are at a loss to know the reason why this is so. 

 They invariably begin to think it is due to faulty culture, 

 and imagine that the fine display of bloom they have all 

 along anticipated will never become an accomplished 

 fact. Those who will take the trouble to look into 

 their plants, and who will also make comparison with 

 others grown in less highly cultivated conditions, may 

 possibly find a reason for the buds falling. 



Plants grown according to the system of high culture 

 that is now the common practice in the garden of the 

 enthusiast, develop an excess of vigour in the earlier 

 part of the flowering period, such as is never seen in 

 plants grown in ordinary garden soil. We may safely 

 attribute to this excess of vigour the falling of the buds 

 that gives so much cause for anxiety to the inexperienced 

 grower. 



Strongly grown Sweet Peas produce growths that 

 are so full of sap, and so soft in the early part of the 

 season, that the buds have an insufficient time to develop 

 properly, in consequence of which they fall. 



Later on when the growths are better ripened and 

 also less vigorous, the functions of the plant are fulfilled 

 in a perfectly natural manner, and blooms of good 

 quality are the invariable result. This peculiarity is 



8c 



