Update - it's been a few days ...

A very exciting thing has happened - I've had my mobile 'phone upgraded to the sleek, modern, stylish and ultra-'hip' Motorola PEBL. This means that I'm now able to take pictures of reasonable quality, transfer them to my computer by USB and upload them to my blog.

Just to prove the point, here's a picture of my Osmunda regalis that is doing extremely well in the garden in Botley.

Considering that I had given it up for dead after it withered last summer, I was delighted to see it producing fronds of 18-24" this year!




Here's a close-up of a diamorphic frond with the sporangia. I think these ferns are really cool. They are quite difficult to propagate because the chlorophyll-bearing spores are only viable for a short time.






I once visited an extraordinary stand of Osmunda with the BPS in the New Forest. The plants were growing in a knee-deep bog and were taller than me (I'm 6'2"!). The sporangia were ripe and we were almost choking in the dusty spores that were being released each time we jogged a plant.



My sporlings are doing pretty well from when they were potted on. I've taken the cover off the greenhouse because it was too difficult to water them. I will try and get them out of the greenhouse and onto the patio floor. Here's a picture of most of them.






Last night, whilst routing through my letter rack I found a whole pack of spores that I misplaced last year. I think that I'll be sowing them soon so that I can grow them on through the winter and put them out into the greeenhouse in the spring.