Well, I ended up buying another magic carpet spirea. It's nice and moundy shaped like I wanted, but the foliage can't substitute for strawberries, so now the bed is kind of out of whack, all the leaves look the same in that area. On the flip side, having more repetition has tied the two beds on the sides of my patio more together. I think I am almost there though. Just ripping out those strawberries with their copious runners did a world of good, making the whole think look neat, tidy and low maintenance, which I think will be a good selling point. Today back at work I noticed a patch of gorgeous sedums growing with beautiful pink flowers. I'd never seen that variety before. They would have made a good subsitute, with larger leaves. I can never find good sedums at the local nurseries though, and I don't have time or inclination to mail order. Someday if I ever get a house of my own again I definately want a little sedum patch! BTW, I think these "what to plant where" posts are an important part of landscaping, expecially in a small yard like mine. Tiny, micro yard landscaping is a bit like landscaping a japanese garden. Every plant has a specific role and function in the unified whole, and it takes a lot of work to balance color, form, leaf shape, bloom times, etc. to acheive a harmonious whole. I even threw in "something edible" as a function for some of my plants. I can't think it out on paper, I have to experiment. Some areas of my garden look just right, others need some work but sadly I'll never get to them. They look good enough for the average joe. I love these plants like thyme that do double duty, or others that are multiple seasons. You really have to select plants that are versatile in this situation. I took some pics and hopefully will be able to post eventually when I have the time to process them.

Tman, I took another look at the pictures and unfortunately have not been able to determine from them whether or not the leaf bases match your descriptions. It may be however, that I do not fully grasp the distinction you are referring to. I will attach below a link to my Flickr page - there you can click on the individual images of the Selaginella to see larger versions - hopefully this will reveal the details you are looking for. Regarding the location: I found the Selaginella growing on an outcrop of granite rock that at its highest point probably rose no more than 5 or 6 feet above the surrounding landscape. I would not say the plants were growing on the south facing aspect of the rock, because essentially, the rock lacked "faces". The outcrop is smooth, and seemingly of one single formation, and there is nothing rugged about it - it has gently sloping gradations - no jutting formations or crevices or anything that could produce shade. The nearest trees are too far away to produce shade except perhaps at sunrise or sunset. From everything I could tell, the Selaginella in this location was probably exposed to the sun all day. The moss the Selaginella was growing in was very dry. I inspected the soil beneath the moss however, and found it to be very dense and cakey and not porous whatsoever, and it was surprisingly damp. There is no water in the immediate area - but there are decent sized quarry pools maybe 200 feet away. The granite was higher than the surrounding area, so there was no standing water on the granite. I don't think I have a picture of the overall population, but I will check later - the clumps of Selaginella, although relatively numerous, were each not much more than 1' in diameter a piece. For now, I have the following image which shows how dry the habitat atop the granite is. Here is a link that might be useful: My flickr page

When you read about a plant and it says it's good for erosion control, will naturalize, and spreads by root suckers, you know that this plant is going to spread its wings no matter what. Remember that each of those suckers turns into its own shrub and that will also want to spread. And they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on. I had suckering Evans Cherry trees - I had to take them out completely and spray roundup for 3 years to get rid of all the suckering wanna-be new trees. I have suckering chokecherries that require at least annual applications of roundup to control the spread. Be careful and at the very least give it the crappiest soil you have in your yard. Or take it back, get a refund and buy a really nice new daylily instead.

Hi! Your plants look very healthy, so maybe they’re just slow growers? As an aside - I have the same little conservatory (from IKEA), but I’ve connected the base to the top with some screws and filled it with earth and have a cactus garden in it - maybe your ferns would like that as well?