Grateful Dead

Polk Salad Annie-great song, but I never knew what the plant was.

although poisonous( i did try to eat a berry before i knew what it was), i have a bunch of Poke (or polk) salad growing in the back. also known as inkberries-taste terrible. didn't think that it grew in the NE of the US. not dead related, but it does have a song named for it POLK SALAD ANNIE. PEACE nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile

Me too! And lining a pond is expensive, but works well. Had to do that too, as the ground we have is all sand, under the dirt. Marye, can second badger that ferns like limestone soil. A couple have taken root on the little hill we built for our waterfall, and this hill contains ALOT of rubble from the old farm building that is right in behind the pond. The wall surface is crumbling, and this wall consists of sandstone bricks, and a lime coating. The ferns seem to like this place, as they are thriving, as I said,came on their own, and seem to like the moist air from the waterfall. Will be crossing my fingers that you keep some alive, 'cuz sounds like a small miracle. Am slowly under the impression that ferns are very free-spirited and independant plants. Really cool!

the soil in the pots is more or less what I threw in the pot whenever I was potting what was in it, which in some cases was three years ago. I think the likely vector is the spore-laden parent plant's proximity to the pots in question -- one with the Chinese Evergreen, one with pothos cuttings, and one with a motley assortment of whatever I put in it to root (that one is fairly heavy on vermiculite) -- but why this year, when they've been in more or less the same spot for years? Go figure. The parent plant itself is no doubt the result of a surviving spore in the recycled soil of some fern I killed, because one day it was just there with the Christmas cactus, which is descended from cuttings I just stuck in there... My favorite of the serendipitous pots is the one outside where, again, I stuck some Christmas cactus when the pot it was in broke. Soon the spider plant had moved in, no surprise there. But a few weeks ago I went to water the pot and it had half a dozen baby oak trees! The squirrels here are very inclined to bury acorns in the flowerpots and then forget about them. I wanna see a picture of this garden of yours...

Marye All I know is that Maidenhairs like limestone soil and that all ferns prefer rainwater......I collect it for mine whenever it rains.....but I suppose with so many you could set up some trials. Where did the compost come from that is in all the pots ..from the same source? we have a nice piece of land, but most of it has only 0-6 inches of soil over limestone. Its not so much gentle gardening round here as rock farming! Planting anything large requires 30 minutes with a pickaxe, but once things get going they can push their roots though the rock. We have an old ash and a walnut over 40 feet high..I do not know how they do it. But the wild limestone plants are amazing (four species of wild orchid in the garden and another 15 species in the area) ..so we are trying to encourage them. This year we rebuilt 20 metres of dry stone wall and inserted all sorts of ferns as we went and they are all doing fine. Now we are going to get some haybales from flower rich meadows and scatter them over our place for the seeds. We want a pond too, but will require rock drills to dig it and then we would have to line it as water just disappears through the limestone I tend to work on the computer for 2 hours and then do 30 minutes in the garden all day long ..its a great routine all round...feel so lucky

...blossom's blooming She's got everything delightful She's got everything I need Rolling in the rushes down by the riverside She's got everything delightful She's got everything I need A breeze in the pines in the summer night moonlight Sunshine daydream Walk you the tall trees Going where the wind goes Blooming like a red rose Breathing more freely Light out singing I'll walk you in the morning sunshine Sunshine daydream Walk you in the sunshine Oh yeah! "All energy flows according to the whims of the Great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him."

You can always go out into Donana or to the ocean Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

I love 'em. I feel your pain, TigerLilly, because if I had to leave one behind I'd be very bummed. My folks have a really nice fish pond with koi and goldfish at their house.

you won't believe this. They've turned up in another pot. I'm actually kind of freaking about how to avoid killing them, since I'm not at all sure what it is they like at this stage or why, this year of all years, they're going nuts. Sort of between the Scylla and Charybdis of letting them dry out too much or having them succumb to the dread Damping Off. They're growing in pots that have been regularly watered with the coffeepot-rinsing water (which definitely agrees with most plants) but at this stage I think that's way too acid for them... In short, I'm rapidly becoming an anxious plant parent.

on rereading, noticed that I misspelled waterlilies. Damn!