"Sacha" wrote in message
id...
On 12/3/06 23:06, in article , "Des
Higgins" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
id...
snip
Asplenium
trichomanes is the one I'm thinking of, as Des also suggested. It's one
of
those tiny plants that I find really enchanting but never know the name
of.
The Ceterach officinarum is familiar and so is the A. ruta-muraria but I
don't like either of those in quite the same way. The first Asplenium
is
growing wonderfully in the wall beside the path of our local pub and I
never
fail to admire it when we go there. I'm wondering if I could get it to

Those wall ferns are indeed good plants. They are spectacularly good at
living in nothing more than bits of mortar and tiny bits of soil that get
lodged in between the bricks in walls. On a good wall, they look really
cool. I have often thought about trying to grow them on my garden walls
or
even house but it would probably be very hard to do. Yet, when they do
it
for themselves, they can take over.


I'm interested to try one or two in the tree stumps, as I said but they
might not like that. The other thing we find interesting and annoying
here
is that all around us people have valerian growing in their walls and odd
nooks and crannies but we get none here. Again and perversely, I suppose,
it's a huge favourite of mine!

Christopher Lloyd used to grow that on old retaining walls (I only know this
from a picture book of his; I have never been to Great Dixter).
Here in Dublin, you get masses and masses of it along the railway lines (the
3 colours, red, pink and white).
It has a reputation for wrecking mortar so keep it to walls tat do not
support parts of yer house :-).




--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)