Tootswisc, Thank you for your reply! I guess I should jump in and give this fern a whirl, it won't hurt right? I'll treat it like the two bostons I have and see what happens. Both bostons are in a west window without any help from humidity and grow fine with the exception of some brown tips/shedding now and then and maybe a few dried fronds now and then but that's mostly in the winter months that happens then in the spring & summer months. Hmmm, maybe this particular fern has to go through an ugly dry/shedding faze before showing it's true beauty like bostons do! If this fern does ok, there is a variegated one that will probably next on my list! Thanks again, Billy Rae

Thanks pat but growing the spores isn't an option,there's just not the room to end up with loads of plants with nowhere to go. I don't have a greenhouse anymore so i have no place to do it. I'll just have to hack it. If it dies it dies. One of the worst plants i've ever had,if only it could live outdoors!

Don't know why I didn't think of P. cretica. Many years age, I grew cvs. 'Albolineata' & 'Mayii', both with white variegation. The sporangia is located near both margins(lamina) and is linear on the fertile pinnae. The sori is triangular(trilete). For pix of location, see link below. for pix of trilete sori: http://origins.swau.edu/fossil/pollen/trilete/trilete.html Sun is up. time to rise and shine! One of our daughters is there this summer, studying British/European History. We receive daily reports via email of her travels. She said the highlight of her trip so far, was attending the games one day at Wimbledon! You wonder sometimes about today's youngsters? Rb Here is a link that might be useful:

First I would need to know, if you are hoping for a fern that looks like a fern? Of the ferns with "ferny"/frond-like foliage, you will pretty much be out of luck. All the ones I know of that are easily available will likely get too tall for your bottle and -- assuming they like the environment you are providing -- will absolutely "run amok". Once they get going they will takeover the bottle and crush out any other plant life. The only exception height-wise might be something like Nephrolepsis exaltata 'Fluffy Ruffles'. Some of the clones of that do stay fairly short. However, it will take over the bottle in short order it finds the conditions appealing. I do seem to recalling seeing some rather neat, small, ferny types in my internet wanderings, but they were quite expensive. So then too there is the question of how much is too much to spend, IYO? Now there are ferns that look very little like anything most of us would ever think of as being a fern. The majority have a vining habit and rather "normal" roundish generic plant type leaves. Many types of Pyrossia have this trait. Again, if it is happy, it will likely try to take over. Many of the nifty more mini-types that I have heard of but never tried are going to be on the expensive side. Elaphoglossum peltatum is neat plant but often sells for around $18 or more for a plant in a 2" pot.