Mine is in a bright, shady area with moist rich soil where it has thrived for about 15 years. It lays down seedlings close to the mother plant, but it took a few years before it matured enough to do so. The flowers are very pretty and a bright purple-blue colour hit in the spring. Elegant foliage. It is easy and rewarding to grow - I'm always surprised that it is not more popular. One of my favourite spring flowers. It is inconspicuous when it is out of bloom, so the flowers always seem to come as a surprise.

Mine is in a bright, shady area with moist rich soil where it has thrived for about 15 years. It lays down seedlings close to the mother plant, but it took a few years before it matured enough to do so. The flowers are very pretty and a bright purple-blue colour hit in the spring. Elegant foliage. It is easy and rewarding to grow - I'm always surprised that it is not more popular. One of my favourite spring flowers. It is inconspicuous when it is out of bloom, so the flowers always seem to come as a surprise.

The straight species thrives even in sun for me. I have divided L.v. Flaccidus and it sulked for a while afterwards. L.v. var albus has no vigor with me.

The rabbits love it.
Kept three plants trimmed to an inch, and now it is too late to bloom.
Loved it when it did bloom, before the resident bunnies.
Don't let that discourage you. Try it for sure.

I love this plant. Totally agree it is underused. Though some sites state it is an ephemeral, mine stays green until frost. Not that it looks all that interesting past spring, but still...

Same here- took a few years before I found any natural self sown babies (which I am thrilled about). I started some purple from seed (WS) and they bloomed second year surprisingly enough.

Now I am on the hunt for a source for the narrow leafed form!
CMK

UPDATE:

Just yesterday I unexpectedly came across this plant at the nursery and as it was on my "to get" list because of this thread I did snap it up. Thanks again.

Has yours already bloomed?

Mine are done blooming. They bloom about the same time as tulips.

I love mine also and agree it is underused. Seems it is really not readily available either.

easy from seed, as are just about all the lathyrus.
New to me this year (along with something of a pea mania - around 13 species).

Great plant.

This winter-early spring may have been hard on them in our garden; lost a few divisions.

No problem with them at Merlin's Hollow where David Tomlinson grows them in a large gravel alpine area.

Below (April 21, 2012):

Thanks for the quick replies. I see SB that your picture showed up just fine here ;).

sometimes i forget how much i like this plant

Yes thanks, Rouge.

Tried uploading it first, before I wrote anything (other than a few Xs).

I picked up another pot of this plant from another nursery just yesterday! (I never noticed this plant last season for sale and now I see it at multiple nurseries).

I planted one in a shady spot while the other was put in a part sun locale.....a bit of an experiment for which I will see the results next season.

(Anyone have success with it planted in a good shade spot?)

Thanks again for the feedback.