Hit the Dirt; Sweet Peas

Good morning. This is out at present yet skipper hit the dirt. The heavy fragrance of sweet peas in the green house in May and wafting from the vegetable gardens in June and bouquets and jars and bears all through the House are the memories that keep me growing sweet peas. My father grew them in the greenhouse individual plants cordoned on strings and carefully tended to produce long straight multiple stems for market. A dozen or so stems will be led in bunches to protect the blooms and tied with raffia looking up resources for this piece I find a discrepancy of two hundred years as to when sweet peas were discovered. It was Father Francisco Perny an Italian monk who discovered them in Sicily and 16 99 and in the early 18th century sent the seeds to Dr.. You have Dale an English plant collector. The species with Iris odorous has small blue and purple flowers but by 900 there were two hundred sixty four varieties exhibited at the Flower Show at the Crystal Palace in shades of red pink blue purple lilac white and even pale yellow. Sweet peas were brought to this side of the Vatican early in the

century and much breeding has produced larger but less fragrant flowers. If you want a low maintenance annual don't try sweet peas. They need tending all throughout the summer if you want continuous bloom into October and even November yes. Even here in Maine that is possible. Love madness has been pushed on us as one of the most desirable traits in plants and perhaps that's why you see less fences and less people with sweet peas clamoring over them. You start with the soil. Ideally in the fall. But who really has the time to prepare a seed bed when they're canning preserving and putting the garden to bed. A few organized souls do do it I know. I found four years worth of an old gardening magazine one thousand sixteen thousand nine hundred nineteen flower law a real practical magazine for the garden enthusiast. That was its real name written entirely by a very opinionated gardener Maurice fold subscription $1 a year or 10 cents an issue in a long piece on raising sweet peas Mr. Fuld declares.

I don't care how your soul is constituted You can make it so that it will grow the finest Sweet Pea flowers. And it goes on to say that you should dig a trench at least two feet wide and three feet deep. I do prepare a trench as early in the spring as the ground can be worked. Having lived in the for two spares with 12 inches deep putting a good amount of compost a well rounded manure in the bottom and returning some of the soil to within 4 inch of the surface level leaving the rest along the edge of the trench. I then put up a five to six foot chicken wire fence down the center of the trench or I gather people rush which can be young grey birch or with a wild hazel and put a road on the trench to make them sturdy. I first make holes with a crowbar put in the brush and firm the soil with the handle of a spade in my heel. Try this netting may also be used or tepees constructed. Meanwhile my seeds have been soaking overnight and I sow them. An inch deep 2 or 3 inches apart about 4 inches away from the fence on either side. This may be a little thick but the germination is sometimes poor. If you

are NOT get it seeds first it improves germination as the seeds germinate and be patient that takes a couple of weeks. Rake in an inch and a half of soil to every two inches of growth. If the pots seem to thick snip out the extras rather than disturb the roots to encourage branching pinch out the tips throughout the season I keep the plants well watered and give bi weekly applications of liquid seaweed. Sometimes I have to support sagging plants with soft twine. I mulch with grass clippings to keep the competitive weeds down and I'm careful to keep the clippings away from the stems and not have them too thick. I try to keep the blossoms picked and deadhead carefully to ensure a full season of bloom. Some of the antique varieties of sweet peas which have so much more fragrance than the new hybrids are not easy to find. And when you do they can be expensive. So check your catalogs for the deep maroon flowered black night the clear blue Flora Norton and the hightest scented pearly pink Janet Scott one of the earliest introductions in the United States was

America very fragrant with white stripes on a cherry background and to mix strains Old Spice and Spencer's Sweet Pea have retained a variety of colors and that wonderful fragrance. One final note I believe sweet peas were frequently grown in the vegetable garden because they require the same intensive care as vegetables. They don't have to be confined to the vegetables they can climb over trellises and arbors and even ramble through the perennial garden. Some of the new shorter varieties could be grown in deep containers and allowed to cascade. All it takes is a little imagination. This is Sally for hit the dirt.