February 6, 1909. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
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Qus ?ea 
For the benefit of our readers we have 
mployed two Sweet Pea experts to give 
is their opinion about the varieties that 
re being put into commerce this year 
or the first time. Mr. G. F. Drayson is 
gardener and Mr. Thomas Duncan is 
in amateur cultivator of this popular 
lower, so that we can get the unbiassed 
ipinion of two different men about these 
new varieties. It is not to be expected 
hey can tell everything about them and 
hey do not pretend to do so. 
Many of the new varieties have,- how¬ 
ever, been tried at Reading, Marts Tey, 
and in many private collections, to which 
these gentlemeti, amongst others, have 
rad a-ccess -to examine the varieties being 
grown. When brought together in this 
way the different -- varieties can be com¬ 
pared as to colour, size and other pecu¬ 
liarities.. Many of the newer ones are 
unfixed and sport into other varieties, 
which may or may not be already well 
known named varieties. The object of 
trials is to see whether the new varieties 
are fixed or otherwise. They are consid- 
lered fixed when tney remain true to their 
own colour for which they were selected, 
and if they give rise to any others, named 
or unnamed, these are considered rogues 
and should be pulled up where they occur 
in sowings of Sweet Peas being grown for 
seed. 
Some of the new varieties are really 
too new for anyone to be certain of their 
behaviour in different soils and districts, 
but enthusiasts are always anxious to have 
them to test for themselves. Growers of 
Sweet Peas for seed are now numerous 
and a good number of them are repre¬ 
sented in our pages and some of the 
others we shall refer to on a future occa¬ 
sion. Our illustrations will show flowers 
of various degrees of waviness, as well as 
a few of the‘older type with erect and 
nearly flat standards, sometimes spoken 
of as,the grandiflora type. Some of the 
very old ones are now really too small 
to be worthy of garden room, unless the 
garden is very extensive. The grandiflora 
type has large flat standards, however, 
and many of them are valuable in many 
ways. The wavy or Spencer type of Sweet 
Pea is at the present time the most popu¬ 
lar, but many of the grandiflora type with 
erect standards are still widely cultivated, 
admired and enjoyed by a large section 
of the community both in this country and 
wherever Sweet Peas are grown. 
We advise those of our readers who 
are anxious to glean some information 
about Sweet Peas to read both accounts 
carefully and select those varieties which 
they think would meet their requirements. 
Some of the very choicest may not yet 
be fixed, but the specialists usually state 
this when discussing them, and readers, 
who have not had the opportunity of ex¬ 
amining fields of Sweet Peas for them¬ 
selves, can be guided by these experts. 
stems, as a rule, are stout, and bear three 
or four of these huge flowers, but at an 
earlier period of the year, and under good 
cultivation, this number may be more 
frequent. To get flowers of the size of 
these at the end of the first week of 
August indicates good cultural skill on 
the part of the grower. It is another of 
the new varieties which have been raised 
and selected by Mr. Henry Eckford, 
Wem, Shropshire, whose name is a 
guarantee that the variety is something 
worth preserving. Large numbers of new 
varieties are grown every year at Wem, 
and hundreds of them are never heard of, 
except by those w r ho’ inspect the trial 
grounds. Those selected are, therefore, 
the result of years of careful painstaking 
and patience. 
Sweet Pea Dodwell F. Browne. \Madaren and Sons. 
= Sweet Pea = 
DODWELL F. BROWNE. 
In general build the flowers of Dod- 
well F. Browne remind one of -The King, 
being a King Edward Spencer. All parts 
of the flower, but particularly the stan¬ 
dard, are very broad and rounded with a 
massive appearance. The standards are 
of a dark crimson-red, while the wings 
are of a rich carmine. The camera also 
shows that the veins are of a darker hue, 
giving the flower a netted appearance, 
but when seen in actual reality the rich 
dark hue appears more uniform. The 
