Sweet Pea

THE SWEET PEA, Lathyrus odoratu

IT is a singular circumstance that the sweet pea has been commonly regarded as a half-hardy annual, whereas it is as hardy as any pea in cultivation, and the seed may not only be sown in February in the open ground, but in November, and if the mice do not eat it the winter will not kill it, and in due time the plants will appear with the sunshine of the early spring. But this fine plant deserves extra care, and should never be grown in a careless manner. It is the custom with many gardeners to sow the seed in pots and nurse the young plants in frames, but we prefer to sow them where they are to remain, and to defer doing this until the middle of March, for if the plants come up with a flush of warm weather before the frosts are over, they are apt to be nipped, and transplanting puts them back, so that to raise them in pots for the purpose is decidedly objectionable. Thus we simplify the ordinary cultivation, but we must urge that what is done should be done well. A piece of mellow soil in an open situation should be prepared, by being well dug and rather liberally manured, in autumn or winter, and when the seed is sown this should be dug over again and the lumps broken to make a nice seed-bed; then sow in a neat drill an inch and a half deep, and very soon after the plants appear put to them stakes of brushwood about four feet high, selecting for this purpose the neatest and most feathery pea-sticks you can find. Peas that are grown to eat may be supported roughly, but peas that are grown to be admired for their beauty should be supported in the neatest manner possible; therefore wire trellises and "rissels" made for the purpose may with advantages be employed, especially when the peas occupy a prominent situation in the garden.

In the event of dry hot weather occurring early in the summer, sweet peas should be liberally watered two or three times a week, and if the natural soil is sandy or chalky it may be advisable to mulch the rows with half-rotten stable dung, which, if needful, can be concealed with a sprinkling of earth. To keep them flowering freely to the end of the season, all the pods should be removed upon becoming visible, and the plants, being thus relieved of the tax upon their energies the swelling of the seed would entail, will maintain their vigour more completely, and flower the more freely in consequence.