16 



The Florists^ Review 



July 9, 1*14. 



bloom. Everyone who has seen thi^ 

 sweet pea says it is more vigorous than 

 any other he has ever seen. The ac- 

 companying illustration shows a man 

 cutting the. blooms from a. eeaffokl 

 higher than a man 's head. A. man 

 standing in the aisle just below hini 

 does not show in the picture. 



Mrs. O. B. Sterens. 



SWEET PEAS FOR CHRISTMAS. 



Will you kindly tell me what is tlio 

 best variety of sweet peas for forcing 

 for the Christmas trade? I mean one 

 of the Spencer varieties. B. L. 



IN THE WINNING CLASS. 



After a careful, critical survey of 

 the many fine assortments of sweet 

 peas exhibited at the annual show in 

 New York, I have selected the follow- 

 ing thirty-two varieties as standing in 

 a class by themselves, the finest in 

 their respective colors and shades: 



Empress Eugenie, light gray and lav- 

 ender. 



Illuminator, orange salmou. 



King White, all that the name im- 

 plies. 



Wedgwood, delicate blue. 



Afterglow, bicolor, violet blue and 

 amethyst. 



Barbara, probably the most distinct 

 orange salmon variety. 



Mrs. J. Emmett, light apricot-pink. 



Constance Hinton, fine white. 



Red Chief Improved, mahogany, 

 shaded orange. 



Charm, white arid lavender. 



Carene (?), orange. 



Countess Spencer, still a fine pink. 



Hercules, one of the best pinks. 



Inspector, one of the best orange 

 shades. 



Florence Nightingale, lavender. 



Margaret Atlee, salmon pink. 



May Campbell, cream, marbled crim- 

 son. 



Margaret Madison, sky blue. 



Mrs. Routzahn Spencer, creamy pink, 

 in evidence in all winning collections. 



Mrs. C. W. Breadmore, cream, with 

 pink edge. 



Nora Unwin, white. 



Loyalty, Avhite ground, lavender 

 stripes. 



Nubian, one of the finest maroons. 



Orchid, rich lavender. 



Snowdon, a winning white. 



Scarlet Emperor, probably the best 

 scarlet. 



Stirling Stent, orange pink. 



Mrs. Stevenson, orange scarlet. 



Etta Dyke, still a good white. 



Queen Victoria, probably the best 

 sulphur yellow. 



Melba, orange. 



Helen Lewis, rich orange pink. The 

 greatest improvement seems to have 

 been made in the sweet peas in the 

 orange shades, but Helen Lewis is still 

 much in evidence and can be counted 

 on as a reliable variety. 



P. W. Popp. 



STEVENS' NEW SWEET PEA. 



I have been reading the article on 

 sweet pecw in The Review of June 11 

 and thought I would tell you of a new 

 sweet pea I found last year among my 

 Christmas Pi«k. It came into bloom 

 about two wepks later' than the other 

 peas in the bed, but showed such a dis- 

 tinct type and such unusual vigor that 

 I sowed all the seed the plant produced. 

 The plant reached a height of about six 



feet. The flowers were the color of 

 Christmas Pink, but much larger, the 

 plant commonly producing four blos- 

 soms on stems from twelve^, to fifteen 

 inches long, some being even as long as 

 eighteen inches. 



Some of the seed was planted outside 

 in the spring, but we found it was 

 strictly a greenhouse sweet pea and if 

 planted outdoors became short, small 

 and poor as the heat of summer came 

 on. In August we planted some of the 

 seed inside and found it the most vig- 

 orous grower we have ever seen. The 

 seed was sown directly in a solid bed, 

 which was rather heavily manured. 

 Other varieties damped off badly, but 

 this came on splendidly and began to 

 bloom at Christmas, although there was 

 an occasional bloom much earlier. 



We cut peas continually from this 

 planting until after Memorial day, and 

 today It stands thirteen feet high, close 

 up to the glass, and is still covered 

 with blooms and seed pods. Of course, 

 the blooms are now much affected by 

 the heat. To my disappointment, this 

 year only about one-third, perhaps not 

 that many, produced four blooms to a 

 stem, but three was the rule until the 

 plants were much exhausted and the 

 heat of summer came on. 



There came three colors, that of the 

 ])arent, a red and one lighter than the 

 parent. This might have lt)een due to 

 the fact that there were other peas in 

 the same house last year, but we pro- 

 tected the plant from the time the 

 otliers, which were late, came into 



The Christmas Pink and Christmas 

 White Spencers are as fine as any you 

 can get for the Christmas trade. The 

 grandiflora varieties, while prolific, arc 

 not profitable to grow now, as they dn 

 not command over half the price of the 

 Spencers. C. W. 



SNAPS AND SWEET PEAS. 



We shall grow snapdragons and sweet 

 peas in the benches, using the same soil 

 in which we grew carnations this year. 

 We want to sweeten it with lime, but 

 do not know how much to put on. 

 Should it be slaked f Also, what shall 

 I put in the ground to make my chrys 

 anthemum stems stiff er. The soil is 

 sandy loam, enriched with stable mu 

 nure. A. L. H. 



I would not advise you to use old 

 carnation soil for the crops named, il 

 you can obtain fresh compost. Sweet 

 peas must have a rich soil, one contain- 

 ing humus, and well rotted cow manure 

 cannot be beaten as a fertilizer. If 

 you do not have this manure, well de- 

 cayed horse manure will answer, or, 

 failing that, a liberal dressing of pul- 

 verized sheep manure and fine bone. 

 To Sweeten soil, the lime used shouM 

 be slaked. Use a bushel on a bencli 

 4x100, but do not use manure at the 

 same time or much of the nitrogen will 

 be released into the atmosphere. 



A top-dressing of lime during the 

 growing season will help the stems on 

 vour chrvsanthemums. Give abundant 



O. B. Stevens' New Sweet Pea, in His Greenhouses at Shenandoah, la. 



