SWEET PEAS IN BORDERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7, 14 August 1912, Page 40

SWEET PEAS IN BORDERS.

Those who cultivate sweet peas only as an exhibition flower will look askance at a suggestion that it be included in the herbaceous border, for they restrict the plants to two or three stems eadi. and grow them I 'foot apart on tall sap ports. In such guise sweet peas have no garden beauty, and it is only when the large flowers on long stems which they yield are cut and put together in vases that there is anything about them to admire. The sweet pea is. however, a beautiful border plant when given a more natural system of culture. The essence of the show system is restriction — restriction of shoots ami restriction of Howers. Now. with most plants thin vulture to a moderate degree is good.

Crowding together is bad. because it ppevents each member of the group from producing side shoots, ami causes the main stem to become elongated and weak.* Put the sweet pea is not a bushy plant by nature, ami does not require wide spacing to grow healthfully and Hower abundantly. A group of sweet peas in the border is not effective when gappy and sparsely flowered. The plants must be in a ‘close mass, mid full of bloom, to show to advantage. The farther the Hower gardener keeps away from the show grower’s methods of culture the more likely he is to get beautiful clumps of sweet peas in his borders. Soil cultivated 4 or 5 feet deep, and packed with masses of manure, lateral shoots picked out, Howers rigorously thinned —all these things should be eschewed. The seeds may be sown where the plants are to bloom, in well-tilled and moderately manured soil. There is no objection to pot-raising, however, provided the tap root of the plant sustains no check, and it may happen that in some cases the grower desires to put certain varieties in a given order, so as to get particular blends of colour; a supply of named plants in pots will then be helpful. The plants should be put 4or 5 inches apart, ami not subjected to much, if any. pruning. Whether the seeds are sown outside, or pot-plants are used, rings may be formed, say 1 yard across, but the rings .may he larger or smaller, according’ to cii’. umstanccs. When the seeds or pot-raised seedlings are set in a ring it is very convenient to put in the sticks. fhe circle should be formed in a hollow, so that whatever water or liquid manure is used gets direct to the roots. In spite of the fart that sticks are a little unsightly while the plants are young, they should be put in early, .is they certainly help the sweet peas to make progress. There is such a great rairje of colours that a var'etv of charming blends can be produced. There are white, ivory, cream, blush. pal? pink. salmon, orange, carmine, scarlet, xerise, crimson, several shades of blue, maroon, and a large number of twocoloured Howers, so that most of the ingredients for beautiful blends are there. Vigorous, (free-blooming varieties. of (dear, decided colours, are the most useful to the Hower-gardener who can alford to pass over the Hakes and fancy Howers. In considering sweet peas in relation

to other plants in the border, it will probably be found best to keep the chimps to one colour, whether lavender, p’nk. white, crimson, or orange. It is not of much use to put sweet peas into borders where they will grow into shrubs or large clumps of herbaceous plants when they develop, for the stems will be thin and the Mowers scanty. They must stand quite clear of all their neighbours when in full growth, so that water and fresh air can reach them without ‘check. If these conditions cannot be provided they had better be ke|>t out of the borders altogether. for they will only cause disappointment.—Walter P. Wright, in “The Gardener.’’