500 THE gardening world 
- Sweet Peas at JVlarks Teg. - 
Trials at Dobbie and Co.’s Farm. 
In accordance with our promise in a 
previous issue, we now intend to say 
something regarding the splendid trial of 
Sweet Peas on the seed farm of Messrs. 
Dobbie and Co., at Marks Tey, Essex. 
A very large proportion of the land in 
this part of Essex is devoted to the pro¬ 
duction of seed, both for the farm and 
the garden. The soil is well adapted for 
this work and the dry climate of Essex 
enables the seeds in most years to be 
harvested in good form. 
It seldom happens that nurserymen cr 
seed farmers put themselves to a great 
amount of trouble in connection with a 
florist’s flower like Sweet Peas, but for 
the purpose of this trial Messrs. Dobbie 
and Co. sowed the seeds in pots during 
January last, putting two seeds in each 
pot. The land having been prepared, the 
Sweet Peas were planted out at the end 
of April, and some of them during the 
early part of May. The wet spring made 
this an exceedingly difficult operation, 
owing to the heavy character of the soil 
of Essex. 
The trials were exceedingly numerous, 
so that a short line in most cases was de¬ 
voted to each of the varieties. The plants 
were put out at 20 in. to 24 in. apart in 
the lines. Owing to this fact and the 
drought the plants appeared to have an 
excess of room, but everyone throughout 
had a large number of shoots, and hav¬ 
ing been started so early in the season 
had now attained a fair height, notwith¬ 
standing the intense drought which pre¬ 
vailed till a short time previous to the 
examination by the large party of Sweet 
Pea experts. With this early prepara¬ 
tion, and the strong plants, plenty of blos¬ 
som resulted and the blooms were of 
large size. Most of those who inspected 
the Peas were quite surprised and de¬ 
lighted to see such excellent results in a 
field of Sweet Peas. 
In the short time at our disposal we 
made brief notes of the varieties that ap¬ 
pealed to us more especially by their 
colours, fixity, floriferous character, large 
flowers or the number of blossoms. 
Triumph had attained a height of 4 ft. 
and the colour was excellent for that 
variety. Amongst maroon kinds Black 
Michael was in very good form with 
blackish maroon' standards. ( H. J. R. 
Digges also had large maroon flowers. 
Mrs. Bieberstedt is a good lavender 
variety, more or less shaded with purple. 
A fine thing in this class is Mrs. C. Fos¬ 
ter with fine flowers, but yef somewhat 
given to variation. A pleasing flower 
w r as A. J. Cook, with mauve wings and a 
rosy-purple standard. John Ingman was 
in fine form here, and the same may be 
said of Phyllis Unwin. Mrs. W. King 
is a rich rose-coloured variety that is 
fairly free. George Herbert was also in 
good form here, haying flowers of rich 
colour and three to four on a stem. 
Apple Blossom Spencer is an American 
variety with a similar colour to Apple 
Blossom, but much larger flowers. Mrs. 
H. Bell is also a free-flowering sort bear¬ 
ing three to four flowers on a stem, but 
we noticed also that it sometimes pro¬ 
duced two standards, which is not a de¬ 
sirable feature. Olive Ruffel is a new 
pink variety, but not well fixed as yet. 
Elsie Herbert is a good pink variety of 
the Spencer type, but it has the same fault 
of not being fixed that many of the pink 
varieties are particularly prone to. 
Amongst the pale varieties Mrs. A. Mal¬ 
colm is a large cream variety bearing two 
to three flowers on a stem. May Perrett 
is another of this class, otherwise de¬ 
scribed as ivory tinged with buff, but the 
shading may also be described as a light 
purple. 
David Cuthbertson is a rich rose va¬ 
riety shaded with crimson, and this sea¬ 
son, at least, has come fairly true. The 
Improved Willmott had flowers of splen¬ 
did size. It has evidently been re-selected 
with the object of keeping it perfectly 
up to its standard or even improving it, 
although its colour still takes a high posi¬ 
tion in the estimation of growers. A little 
known variety is Mrs. A. Ireland, having 
a rose standard and pink wings, the dis¬ 
tinction being so well marked that it 
might properly be classed with the bi¬ 
colors. Sutton’s Queen, as is well 
known, is a pink variety with a creamy 
ground, and here was in good form. The 
same might be said of the Picotee-edged 
Evelyn Hemus, which is creamy-white 
deepening to bright rose at the margins. 
James Grieve is one of the more' advanced 
of the yellow varieties and describable as 
a sulphur-coloured self. Mrs. Collier is 
somewhat paler, but has large and hand¬ 
some flowers. Bilrpee’s Primrose Spen¬ 
cer is evidently not yet quite fixed. Of a 
different type is Agnes Johnston, with 
creamy-blush flowers and a pink stan¬ 
dard. It often finds favour with exhibi¬ 
tors. Gladys Unwin was here in fine form. 
The plants raised from foreign seeds of 
Frank Dolby and John Ingman were con¬ 
siderably mixed, whether by lack of 
roguing or sporting we are "unable to 
say. 
Maggie Stark may be described as dark 
orange and practically may be regarded 
as a good stock of Helen Lewis. The 
latter, as we stated previously, has not 
come up to its proper standard this year. 
Evelyn Byatt is liable to burn in hot dry 
weather. Some early varieties we noted 
for their dwarf habit, and amongst these 
were Burpee’s Earliest White with a flat 
standard, and Earliest of All, which, of 
course, as is well known, is a selection 
from Blanche Ferry and really early. 
Several trials of the white Etta Dyke 
were in good form and very floriferous. 
The rich scarlet-orange flowers of St. 
George were in good form and not so 
inclined to burn as many of the orange 
shades, and this standard, we hope, it 
will maintain, because orange varieties, 
as a rule, are very difficult to get in pass¬ 
able form in sunny gardens. 
A new wavy form is Rosy Adams, hav- 
ing a rosy-purple standard and carmine- 
purple wings. Several trials showed that 
it is fairly constant and distinct. It is 
also rather an uncommon colour. Blush 
Queen No. 2 is a pale selection from 
Gladys L T nwin, but the flowers are some¬ 
times almost white. Close by were several 
August 1, 1908. 
of the leading pure white varieties, in¬ 
cluding Nora Unwin and Burpee's White 
Spencer belonging to the same type. The 
latter is rather thin in the petal. Doro¬ 
thy Eckford is a well-known white, though 
merely a large form of the ordinary type 
and it still retains its previous high stan 
dard. Amongst the blush or pale pink 
varieties Duchess of Sutherland, Mrs.' A 
Watkins and Mrs. Hardcastle Sykes were 
well flowered and true to character. The 
cerise variety known as Coccinea was also 
in good form^ Audrey Crier had fine 
flowers, though liable to vary in colour. 
Coming next to dark varieties we noted 
Miss E. F. Drayson in fine condition. It 
is a scarlet with large and bright flowers. 
The King is also a new variety with 
flowers of splendid size and scarlet with 
carmine wings, but unfortunately some of 
the flowers were slightly burned. It bears 
three to four flowers on a stem. Chrissit 
Unwin is nearly of a uniform scarlet, but 
slightly liable to burn. Undoubtedly the 
recent hot weather was a very severe test 
to most varieties. Queen Alexandra is 
amongst the least liable to burn of any, 
but some trials of it obtained from foreign 
sources were rather mixed. 
Blush Queen No. 1 is a very soft shade 
of colour and considerably paler than 
Agnes Eckford. Princess Victoria is a 
telling soft pink variety and practically 
still a new variety. There were numerous 
trials of The King and in some instances 
the flowers were handsome, being of a 
much brighter or more scarlet hue than 
the well-known King Edward VII. Scar¬ 
let Gem, if we remember rightly, was the 
first of these rich colours, but it still re¬ 
tains the liability to burn. On the u>n- 
trary, Queen Alexandra in two other 
trials was true to character and in good 
form. 
We were much taken with many of 
the so-called blue varieties in cultivation, 
so that although Navy Blue and the im¬ 
proved form of it, Lord Nelson, were in 
excellent form, we do not much admire 
them. Lord Nelson frequently carried 
four flowers on a stem. Miss H. C. Phil- 
brick is a beautiful light blue and in ex¬ 
cellent form, although the flowers are 
smaller than many growers would like. 
Horace Wright is a maroon and violet 
form wifh large flowers. Helen Pierce 
still remains true to character and is usu¬ 
ally described as marbled blue, but it 
would be more correctly described as a 
netted blue. 
Very good of its kind was Prince Olaf, 
being striped with bright blue on a white 
ground. Dobbie's Mid Blue is a very 
good blue of uniform hue and floriferous. 
Hester is a striped blue of some merit for 
those who like flowers of this character. 
Unique is rather a striking variety, being 
boldly striped with blue on a white 
ground. On the other hand, Jessie Cuth¬ 
bertson is striped with red on a soft 
creamy ground and makes a good variety 
of its class. Close by we noted good 
strains of Countess Spencer and King Ed¬ 
ward VII. , the former being notably true 
to character and the latter of excellent 
size. 
R.H.S. 
The next fortnightly exhibition of 
flowers, plants, etc., of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society will be held on August 
4th, from r to 6 o’clock. Admission, 
2s. 6d. 
