I love this perennial! I saw it on a garden tour in NH about eight years ago and had never seen it before--and it is so easy, blooms very early, and has been totally reliable, and is so pretty.

After I saw it, I went hunting for it and found some. Have been picking them up here and there ever since. No one has ever heard of it by either the botanical name or the common name, which is truly an awful name.

It comes in various shades of pink, from light to dark. As the name indicates, it is a member of the pea genus. It forms small, shrub-like plants, very neat and tidy. My oldest plants are about two feet across and 18" high.

It blooms a good long time and produces tiny little peapods that decorate the plant afterwards. You see it in the English garden books, with many cultivars, and it's so easy and attractive that I have no idea why it isn't more common here.

Aww, ginny, I love the name! It's cute! Like a duckling, but vetchier. ;)

Lol, greening. "Make way for vetchlings." Hey, that's not a bad sales pitch.

But seriously, everyone who sees them in my garden oohs and aahs about them and asks their name and then looks blank and confused. Who's gonna remember a thing like spring vetchling?

Call it a perennial sweet pea!

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennial sweet vetchling

Duckling sounds so much nicer than what was flashing in my mind (A preteen girl with an attitude and closet way too precocious)!

Lathyrus vernus sounds so much prettier!

Streptocarpus anyone?

It is related to sweet peas but does not have a fragrance so is not "sweet".

And be careful of that website. It's done for Southern gardeners and has info that doesn't apply to us. Most importantly, spring vetchling does not die back after bloom in our climate. And mine have done best in mostly sun. The one in half-shade is not doing quite as well.

Another site says it likes alkaline soil but my soil could not get more acid so there you go.

Oh, heck. I was offered this plant and turned it down. My sister, who over the years has given me more invasive species than I can count, had brought them to me this spring and could not believe I said "no thanks". I assumed it was one of the weedy "perennial sweet peas" that I've yanked out of several old gardens. I take it that was wrong.

Ginny, the website that greening provided is Puhgat's Garden that is located in the Puget Sound area...PNW, not the south. I use their website a lot.

/tricia

I think I have a good old fashion case of plant envy.

I'm sorry for moving that nursery a few thousand miles. Whoops. But the website given for this plant does talk about Southern gardeners, summer heat, scruffy after blooming, one season interest--none of which has been the case for the plants I have. Au contraire.

I have seven plants, bought as I stumbled across them in local nurseries--and one at a GC plant sale--over the last eight years. Won't repeat rave review. And DTD, it's time to pay your sister a visit, trowel in hand.

I had never seen this plant anywhere before in my life. It was in a privately owned, smallish nursery in Tyngsboro Ma, of all places. Most of its plant material came from Cavicios's one of the biggest wholesalers in MA, but I don't remember if this was.
Ginny, how do you use seven? What is its ultimate spread and what's the 'feel' of the garden/s where its planted? Glad to hear about sun, because my shade garden is really stuffed.

I picked it up a couple of years ago in Westford. I thought it might be invasive/weedy too, but its a pretty nice plant. The flowers are not overwhelming, but cute.

My seven are planted in three pairs and one single in various parts of the pathetically small sunny area of my mostly shady perennial border. Four are in deep, rich, moisture-retentive soil. Three are in dry but fairly rich soil.

As they are different ages, it is not fair to compare them. The oldest pair, seven years old, are covered with flowers. The flower display definitely increases with age. This is a plant that takes awhile to settle in and really show its stuff. But it requires NO maintenance--one reason I love it. The oldest pair are, as noted above, at least two feet wide and 18" tall. They had a few babies this year so I am the happy mother (grandmother?) of vetchlings.

Not sure what you mean by "feel" of the garden Idabean. I have a typical New England colonial with stone walls and white arbor, white Chippendale bench etc. Traditional perennial border--210' long, in a U-shape around my long skinny backyard. Design is very important to me. I try to grow as many plants as possible but still have a design in place and definitely a color scheme of pink, blue, lavender, purple and some clear yellow, especially in daylily time. I don't know if that's what you mean.

At home depot in Waltham, there were several pots of these in the 5.49 section of perennials. Also, an entire row of Cotinus "Young Lady" but I did not look at the price. And, someone was watering everything. Only one rack of very sad dried out plants.