RAGE FOR SWEET PEAS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 18 March 1911, Page 10

RAGE FOR SWEET PEAS.

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM NEARLY HALF THE YEAR. London, January 12. . Sweet peas, over which a national society of great energy presides, have so grown ln favor, ever since last year, that he efforts of the seedsmen to supply eed for the coming season an b 'j n i tested to the utmost. More and more acres are to be devoted to the crop commercially and there i s scarcely an amateur gardener m the country who is not paying more attention to the flower . The number of people to be employed in the industry is astonishing. One seeds man says he must keep eighty girls busy during eight months of the year in doin« nothing but hand picking the seeds which are carried past them on moving One r e ngo f thig . g the rpmttrkftb , length of period during which the (lowers can now be made to bloom. They can bo enjoyed during nearly six months'of the year. This year the blooms hung on into November, and those gardeners who had the advantage of any glass forced them into flower before mid-summer Though the year is at its youngest,"a number of people have already plants in Rood growth which will l,e planted out later, and even out of doors the practice is to start the succession.-!] sowings ear her and earlier. February is not too early. Those who cared to risk the May frosts got some wonderful results last year from February sowings, and are tempted to extend their temerity.