SWEET PEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 20

SWEET PEAS

AUTUMN SOWINGS BEST

The sweet pea is one of the easiest, most adaptable, and most reasonable plants to grow, but so much has been written and said on the subject of soil preparation, etc., that one might imagine it a difficult plant to grow. Almost any soil will be.found suitable for obtaining a quantity of good bloom for garden and home decoration, even if the soil is' just dug over and no more time or money spent on it than for any ordinary flower or vegetable crop.

Although the sweet pea readily responds to good- culture, it is not fas-

Sweet .Pea (the Mauve Marquis)

tidious, and will afford greater results for the time and money expended on it than any other flower. ESSENTIAL POINTS. The essential points in good culture may be briefly summarised as follows. Prepare the ground as early as possible. Dig deeply or trench, if possible, 2ft to 3Jft deep, well mixing in_ a liberal dressing of manure. Obtain good seeds, which cost no more to grow than "inferior ones, and sow them in the autumn right out of doors. Place a few twiggy branches for the plants to dmg to so that they will remain upright. It cannot be' too strongly emphasised that autumn-sown sweet peas give far better results than those sown in the. spring. ■ Spring-sown plants i may do well,,but they do not grow away . so, vigorously . and the colours I are not quite so brilliant. The best time to sow is during March and ' April. Autumn-sown plants bloom a month earlier than spring, and often continue flowering weeks. after. the latter have, finished. The1 blooms are also larger. Sweet peas like a fairly firm and settled. soil and. unless the work of digging and trenching is completed in good time the soil is not properly weathered and never settles down early enough. They do well on almost any soil -that, is not in too poor a condition, but that which is in good heart, slightly on the heavy side, and well drained is to be preferred.. ATTEND TO DRAINAGE. "Where the soil is heavy on a clay subsoil it will readily be seen that if trenches, say, 2ft to 2Jft wide, are taken down into such a subsoil, the bottom will act as a catch-pit for surface water, and may "cause trouble when the plants come into bloom. It is therefore necessary to make sure that adequate drainage.is supplied.

Liberal quantities of "manure should be thoroughly mixed with the lower soil while wood-ashes added will prove one of,the finest of sweet pea manures. A.dressing of basic'slag and bone meal can also be added to the top spit with advantage, but animal manures are best avoided on the top.

Seed may be sown where the plants i are to remain in most districts. As has already been stated, sweet peas! are quite hardy; but'in certain -cases' it may ,be convenient , and advisable ' to sow either in boxes or pots and | transplant outside in the spring. Sweet peas transplant quite easily provided the roots, are not unnecessarily lacerated when lifting. " ' GROWN IN POTS. If growing in pots or boxes one of the niost important things to remember is that the seedlings must' be grown quite hardy. Any pamper-

ing or attempt to force the plant will lead to disappointment. Seed-should be covered from Jin to lin deep arid the plants thinned to stand not less than 9in apart. FERTILISERS. Soot and wood ashes are excellent | fertilisers and quite safe to use. The so-called winter-flowering sweet peas I I come into flower in the open ground I a month or more before 'the ordinary' 'ones. This race of sweet: peas has, been greatly improved-of recent years and seed may now be obtained producing ' blooms of the true Spencer type in a wide range of colours. Seeds of these shduld be sown at the same time as the others and receive the same treatment. AN EXPERT'S ADVICE. The following short poem on sweet pea culture by Reginald Arkell is worthy of attention. "Prepare the ground in autumn, ; And-sprinkle liihe about; Give the soil time to settle Before you plant them out. The. trenches •, shduld be three feet

deep, And also two feet wide, With borierheal, soot, 'and farm manure ' Mixed with the soil inside. You'll find that mid-September Is the proper tune to start; Thin out the plants until they stand Just half a foot apart. Be: careful how you drain the soil, Put. sand along each row— But, Gladys, she just shoves them in, And, .golly, how they grow!"