Three Good New Sweet Peas.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 22, 29 November 1911, Page 38

Three Good New Sweet Peas.

“There are several sweet peas that have done well in the terrible season just over in England,” says a writer in the “Gardener’s Magazine,” “and many new varieties that have attracted considerable attention by reason of their line form and colour. The following three are not here referred to as standing head and shoulders above all other new sorts, but attention is drawn to them because they possess high merit and distinctness, and are thoroughly well worthy of cultivation. “Afterglow, one of the novelties from Mr. Robert Bolton, Warton, Carnforth, met with general approval on the occasion of the National Sweet Pea Show in July last. The variety lias good form, size, and excellent stems, and it presents a novel and pleasing shade of colour that is best described as deep mauvepurple. There is such a softness of shade and such a beautiful sheen over the ‘blooms that almost everyone admires the variety; certainly it did not lack admirers at the great London show.

“Bertha Massey is a charming sweet pea. and its exquisite shade of bright inauve-lilae has already made it a iiist favourite in the estimation of ladies. As an exhibition flower, however, it

stands out well, and it is especially valuable in, say, a class of twelve varieties, because of its attractive colouring, and the way in which it lights up deeperhued sorts. Messrs. S. Bide and Sons, Farnham, are the raisers of this line waved novelty. "Thomas Stevenson, raised by Mr. Robert Holmes, of Norwich, bears the name of Mr. Thomas Stevenson, head gardener to Mr. E. G. Moeatta, Woburn

Place, Addlestone. Mr. .Stevenson’s knowledge of sweet peas is particularly wide, and his success as an exhibitor is so well known that when we say he wished this variety to bear his name, it may be taken for granted that in colour and size and form it stands in the first rank. The colour of Thomas Stevenson is variously described as orangescarlet and orange-salmon, and these de-

scriptions convey a very good idea of the shade seen in this brilliant variety.” The photographs illustrating these three new varieties are from blooms grown at Takapuna, Auckland.