On 02/10/2011 14:05, Colin Jackson wrote:
As a newby, what is the difference between brackens& ferns?

As a matter of interest, a neighbour said what I had in the garden was
bracken - an invasive weed.
Now the boss is looking , in a nursery, for pots of something very similar,
marked up as ferns!

Simplest way is take a picture and post it online. But a rough guide is
that bracken typically has strong vertical stems with fern shaped leaves
right at the top whereas ferns come as single fern shaped leaves from
the ground with characteristic fractal shape. There are plenty of
exceptions but this should be good enough to see if you have bracken or
a common fern growing in your garden. Bracken isn't hard to control in a
domestic setting it is only a problem when there are acres of it.

Regards,
Martin Brown