Sweet Peas

Weather: Solid rain on Sunday, with mists continuing on Monday.  It may be the last rain of the season.  Temperatures have flirted with freezing, so perennials have mostly gone out of bloom.  Annuals that like cool weather are continuing to flourish.

Last useful rain: 10/17.  Week’s low: 32 degrees F.  Week’s high: 75 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 31 mph in Los Alamos on Wednesday.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, morning glories, hollyhocks, red amaranth, Maximilian sunflowers, dahlias, zinnias, marigolds, Sensation cosmos

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Queen Anne’s lace, sweet peas, ánil del muerto, heath asters, dandelions

What’s blooming in my yard: Miniature and floribunda roses, large flowered soapwort, pink evening primroses, chocolate flowers, Mexican hats, black-eyed Susans, plains coreopsis, anthemis

What’s turning red: Leaves on sand cherries, Virginia creeper, Johnson’s blue geranium

What’s turning orange: Leaves on peaches, which drop quickly

What’s turning yellow: Leaves on cottonwoods, catalpas, ash trees, Siberian peas, grape vines, roses of Sharons, hostas; most green leaves drain chlorophyll to chartreuse before turning yellow and dropping

Animal sightings: Gecko, cabbage butterflies, small and bumble bees, hornets, crickets, grass hoppers, harvester and sidewalk ants

Tasks: State mowed shoulders.

Weekly update: Sweet peas are one of those plants that are fussy, until things to right for them, and then they take over.

I planted some seeds of the perennial species, Lathyrus latifolia, by east fence in 2003.  The area was shaded by the wooden slats, and was between some tamarix trees.  They hobbled along, coming up but not blooming until 2006.

Then, in 2013, a plant appeared by the retaining wall; the following year they came up among the Dr. Huey roses that line the back porch.  The legume’s flowers were white, not pink.

The following year they started spreading.  Now they clamor through the canes, producing flowers all summer.  They also spread out over the sprayer hose, stopping the water from going where I desire.  It has become an annual, or rather a twice a year task, to cut them down.

I usually cut them in early summer, but never got to them this year.  The heat and Russian thistles spread by the April wind dictated much of what I did.

So, this past week, with frost imminent, I went after them.  They provide a useful mulch in winter, but I didn’t want the dead leaves draping over the canes when water from the roof froze on them in winter.

In early summer, I’m careful about what I do, but now I felt a greater sense of urgency.  I cut the stems somewhere near the base, and yanked them down.  There was so much herbage, I threw them on the burn pile rather than filling trash bags.

I found them wherever there was water: next to the hoses, and along the tiles I placed along the porch to keep plants back.  They also spread into root areas where I feed the roses.  When I couldn’t reach them because of thorns, I used the loppers.

I didn’t cut them to the ground, as I might in summer.  They retain their leaves into winter, which suggests they are still alive.  I’m hoping that some may grow back a foot or so in the more barren areas to provide protection for rose roots.

I wasn’t just interested in clearing the sweet peas, which I could do after the frost.  I also wanted to cut dead wood from the roses.  That is best done while the canes still have leaves.  For various reasons, I hadn’t gotten to this for several years, and there had been some die back the past winters.

I finished yesterday morning as the winds were beginning, but before the clouds started to roll in. 

Notes on photographs:
1.  Pink perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolia) and Dr. Huey rose flower, 31 May 2020.  Dr. Huey is the root stock used on roses sold in Española, and survives when the hybrid graft has failed.

2.  Sweet peas blooming among the Dr. Huey roses, 10 June 2022.

3.  White sweet pea, 10 June 2022.  This is a natural example of the research Gregor Mendel did to establish patterns of genetic inheritance.

4.  Burn pile, 22 October 2022.  I burned last Saturday, so all that is here is dead wood from the roses and sweet pea vines.