530 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



SWEET PEAS 



T CONSIDER Sweet Peas not only important florist flowers, but 

 '■ also flowers in which every retail grower should interest himself. 

 There are today many fine sorts for both indoors and outdoors, and 

 their popularity and adaptability for so many purposes make them 

 extremely desirable. I don't know of any time of year when 

 the florist cannot use well-grown Sweet Peas to good advantage, no 

 matter what other flowers there may be in the market. The fact 

 that Sweet Peas should be freshly cut in order to be at their best, 

 is another inducement for those who care to grow on at least a part 

 of their requirements. 



General Requirements 



While in many sections of the United States Sweet Peas do 

 well outdoors, there are many more where they are not always a 

 success. Like garden Peas they delight in cool weather. They also 

 need plenty of sun and moist soil, but give the best of them a week 

 or two of real hot July weather and they will soon show the eflfects 

 of it. To reaUy behold them at their best, especially some of the 



improved Spencer vari- 

 ety, they should be 

 grown under glass, where, 

 in early Spring, we can 

 get them with perfectly 

 developed flowers, and the 

 effective long stems. Here; 

 again, we frequently meet 

 conditions common to 

 many other flowers, name- 

 ly, that with the ever- 

 increasing glass area de- 

 voted to their culture, the 

 wholesale grower doesn't 

 always find a paying mar- 

 ket when everybody is 

 shipping Sweet Peas, while 

 the retail grower who has 

 just enough plants to 

 cut from to supply his 

 regular trade sells all 

 of them at a good price. 

 Fig. 274.— Okchid-plowbhing Sweet Peas. Then, if special occasion 

 Wonderful improvement has been made in arises, he can easilv Pur 

 Sweet Peas and still grander varieties are con- „i,oo^ ,„V,„+ + a 

 stantly being introduced, some of tbem especiaUy ^"^.^^ . ^"^^ ^^^^^ Ho wers 

 well adapted for indoor flowering he is in need of. 



