Greg Kirby's talk to the MGS in Adelaide about Sturt's Desert Pea included many useful practical tips. Several underline the points made already by Trevor.
Greg said that it normally grows on rich alkaline soils, often clay, with a pH of around 8, often with iron oxide, phosphorus and potash. As Trevor says, it germinates when the soil is thoroughly wet, with follow-up rain.
Only about 10% of wild-collected seed is viable. If the seed is not fresh, Greg recommended abrading it, and soaking it before sowing - not in boiling water, but 90 deg C for two minutes is good. The soil must be above 20 deg C for germination, and the plants really need temperatures of 32 deg C or above to grow on well. In the Mediterranean Greg thought it unlikely to succeed in the open ground North of a line from Tangier and Tunisia to Cyprus.
The plants can take an amazing amount of heat if given water, and while growing in good heat should be watered at dawn and dusk.
Don't disturb the roots, and don't shade the plants at all - avoid trees and shrubs. If there are mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, the plants should nodulate, but they do respond well to fertiliser, needing need NPK, iron and calcium. Liquid fertilisers give them a good boost.
Greg said that if you can get them you should always plant more than the number you actually want. And in the open ground, grow in a different spot each year.
If the plants are in pots, they must be given nitrogen, and need big pots.
Pests love it, he said, particularly red spider mite.
They can be grafted, and grow well on Colutea rootstocks (back in the 1870s/1880s Clianthus and Sutherlandia were used too).
Interestingly, Greg said that Sturt's Desert Pea used to be cultivated quite widely in Europe (including the UK), certainly from1858 onwards. Yet it's very rarely seen here now.