Lathyrus
– Everlasting Pea
Hardy Perennial.
Five to ten feet.
Flowers white or crimson, July to September.
The Everlasting Pea pretty closely resembles
the annual Sweet Pea;
against its advantage of perpetuity are its almost
entire lack of scent and its small range of colour.
The best-known kind is Lathyrus latifolius; the crimson-flowered
form is showy, but yields to Lathyrus lat. Albus, a
plant with somewhat small, but very abundant pure
white flowers, borne in clusters on long wiry
stalks.
There are several other shades of colour, pink,
purplish and bluish; but the two latifolius are
all that are necessary.
The rose-crimson form may be raised from seed
sown in the open in April without any difficulty;
the white may also be sown, but the seed will
produce a large proportion of red-flowered plants.
The seedlings should be put out in their flowering
quarters while they are small; the full-grown
plant develops long fleshy roots, often club-shaped,
which are not easy to transplant nicely.
The ground should be deep and good, and the peas
must have something to climb over.
If a group of five or six plants be put out some
two feet apart, a sort of rough edge of tall pea-boughs
may be fixed around them in April.
They may be planted to make hedges or lines, to
cover arbours or trellis, and to mask old trees
or stumps.
In October cut away the withered haulm a few inches
from the ground, and give the crowns a good top-dressing
of crumbly manure.
See also : Sweet Pea
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