WHEN TO GATHER SWEET PEAS 93 



flowers. Growth is developing during the cooler period 

 above-mentioned, in consequence of which our Sweet 

 Peas should be larger and better in quality. The plants 

 have been recuperating throughout the night so that in 

 the cool of the morning their condition is distinctly 

 fresher, and the flowers retain their freshness longer in 

 consequence. 



Those who gather the Sweet Peas are often exceed- 

 ingly careless. Instead of gathering a few blossoms 

 and placing them in water at once, they not infrequently 

 gather quite a large bunch, during the compilation of 

 which the flowers must necessarily suffer from the 

 warmth of the hands of those who bunch them. We 

 prefer to have in readiness a number of vases or other 

 vessels of water into which each small gathering is 

 placed straight away. In the case of those who intend 

 to exhibit Sweet Peas it is important that the flowers be 

 placed in water some hours before proceeding to the 

 show. When the blossoms are kept out of water any 

 length of time after being gathered, deterioration quickly 

 takes place and the flowers can never give such a good 

 account of themselves for this reason. It is possible to 

 gather flowers of the Sweet Peas one morning for 

 exhibition on the following day, provided cool, dry 

 quarters with subdued light can be secured in which to 

 place them. As a matter of fact where the flowers have 

 to be taken some distance to the show, such as necessi- 

 tates a long railway journey, the gathering must of 

 course take place in the morning or evening of the pre- 

 ceding day. And even then we would give the morning 

 gathered flowers the preference of our choice. 



We should have mentioned earlier in this chapter 

 that the Sweet Peas should not be packed when they are 

 wet with rain or moist with heavy dew. Avoid crowd- 

 ing the sprays of blossoms in the vases. Give them 

 plenty of room as by these means they keep better and 

 certainly appreciate in size and general appearance. 



