The Latest Discovery — Plant Sweet Peas Now— By Leonard Barron, ^■ 



BUT YOU MUST BE SURE TO GET THEM COVERED LIGHTLY WITH LITTER BEFORE SNOW COMES 



THERE is no longer any question 

 about it! Sweet peas will give 

 amazing results from fall planting right 

 out in the open ground — larger flowers, 

 sturdier growth, and earlier bloom. Every 

 amateur knows that the one essential thing 

 in planting sweet peas is to get the seed 

 into the ground at the earliest possible 

 moment. How much better, then, to feel 

 comfortably settled in the knowledge that 

 the seed is already there, awaiting the 

 awakening warmth of spring! 



Fall planting, in the cases that I noted 

 in one of the biggest sweet pea gardens 

 of the country, gave results this year which 

 left no room for further argument. You 

 prepare the ground exactly as for spring 

 planting; the only condition that has to 

 be watched for is to make the 

 planting late enough to permit 

 the seed to lie dormant all the 

 w'.nter. The exact date for this 

 will depend on the locality. In 

 the Southern States toward 

 the end of October; in the 

 neighborhood of Philadelphia 

 in the last few days of Novem- 

 vember and the first few days 

 of December; in the latitude 

 of New York, sow about No- 

 vember 15th; and correspond- 

 ingly earlier a little farther 

 north. In the extreme North 

 probably fall planting is not 

 practicable. 



A comparison of results that 

 I had before me during the 

 past season showed clearly 

 that the seed, after planting, 

 is to be covered lightly with 

 litter, before the snow comes. 

 The tops should not appear 

 .above ground, the object in 

 view being to have the seed 

 just start to germinate before 

 frost comes. If the sowing. is 

 too early and the tops make 

 an appreciable growth before 

 the winter, the whole plant 

 will be killed and the ground 

 must be resown. This early 

 sowing of early varieties 

 should give flowers by the 

 middle of May, and from the 

 other types a couple of weeks 

 later. It is perfectly obvious 

 that seed that is already in 

 the ground to take advantage 

 of the first warm days of spring 

 will be making an appreciable 

 growth some time before the 

 ground would be in condition 

 to work for spring sowing. 



But if it is inconvenient to 

 actually sow the seed now, by 

 all means prepare the soil for 

 spring sowing: trench it, two 



to three feet deep, putting a layer of well 

 decayed stable manure about a foot down 

 and adding a dressing of bonemeal as the 

 trench is filled. In filling in the top 

 layer of soil let it remain as rough as pos- 

 sible for the action of frost and rain. The 

 sweet pea does best when it works for a 

 living, so particular care must be taken 

 to thoroughly firm down light soils in the 

 spring before planting. A sui-face dress- 

 ing of newly slaked lime during the winter 

 is usually beneficial; it helps wonderfully 

 on well manured land. And anyhow, the 

 sweet pea is a lime lover. Make the trench 

 to receive the seed about four inches deep, 

 and use about one ounce of seed to fif- 

 teen feet of row. 

 The best kind of brush is hazel. Brush 



The modern type of s^veet pea Tvhicli, ■with its larger flov^er with waved standard 

 has given a new vogue to this popular annual 



178 



of any sort is better for the spread of the 

 vines than any substitute support such 

 as wire, or netting, or string; but whatever 

 your support is to be, get it set up before 

 the vines are up, for they will be all the 

 better for climbing the moment they are 

 long enough to do so. 



It was with surprise that I noticed so 

 many am.ateurs last year still . growing 

 the old-fashioned or grandiflora type of 

 sweet pea; it is surpassed in magnifi- 

 cence of form by the new "Spencer" 

 type, with its beautifully waved stand- 

 ard. The Spencer typeis more expensive 

 because the seed is not so freely produced 

 as in the old form, but ;.tHe improved ;f orm 

 of the flower .rnakes. if far more useful 

 for decoration, and practically all the 

 colors of the old type are now 

 available in the Spencer or, as 

 they are sometimes called, "or- 

 chid-flowered " forms. These 

 giant flowers are not merely 

 larger strains ; they represent a 

 natural, though sudden, devel- 

 opment in the species itself. 

 The original appearance of the 

 giant flower was in an Eng- 

 lish garden — Althorp Park, 

 Northampton, the home of the 

 Countess Spencer, in 1900. Mr. 

 Cole, the gardener, named his 

 discovery after the Countess, 

 and was under the belief that 

 he had a new cross. The curi- 

 ous coincidence that the same 

 type of flower appeared simul- 

 taneously in two other places 

 the same season (one of these 

 being identical with Mr. Cole's 

 flower) leads to an entirely 

 different conclusion — rather 

 that we have an instance of 

 De Vries "mutants." In the 

 ten years that have elapsed, 

 half a hundred Spencer forms 

 have been introduced. There 

 is some confusion among them 

 owing to the unsettled or sport- 

 ing tendency of the entire race. 

 It has not yet come into its 

 own. Practically all the lead- 

 ing varieties in grandiflora 

 type are duplicated in Spencer 

 forms, and a number of entirely 

 new colorings have appeared. 

 The day is probably not far 

 distant when the old popular 

 grandiflora type with its flat 

 standard will have passed from 

 cultivation in progressive gar- 

 dens, and with the advent of 

 its successor comes a new era 

 of popularity in this most lux- 

 uriant and most varied of our 

 hardy annual flowers. And it 

 is a profuse bloomer, too. 



