"Sacha" wrote in message
id...
On 13/3/06 10:15, in article
, "Des Higgins"
wrote:


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


"Sacha" wrote in message
id...
snip
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 :-).

We haven't tried getting it going in our walls but if we do, it would be
the
one that runs round the garden! The strange thing is that we are
surrounded
by it. Not only is it in profusion in neighbouring villages, a wall mere
yards from here is full of it. But it's as if someone has drawn an
invisible line either side of our house from the nearest neighbour to the
other end of the village. I can only suppose that it's something to do
with a change in the type of mortar used in building, perhaps. Do you
think
it could be the cause?
--

This is on;ly part of an answer but...
wikkipedia never ceases to amaze me .... here is the entry for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Valerian

It says it tolerates lime well and hence can grow in lime mortar.
Maybe your mortar is more recent? Lime mortar was the standard mortar in
times past.
In other words, I have no idea :-)



Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)