Requires a well-drained position and lots of old mortar rubble in the soil. Requires a humid atmosphere and some shade. A good plant for growing on a shady part of an old dry-stone or brick wall. Plants are hardy to about -30°c. Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer.

The dried fronds have been used as a tea substitute.

Spores - best sown as soon as they are ripe on the surface of a humus-rich sterilized soil. Keep the compost moist, preferably by putting a plastic bag over the pot. The spores usually germinate in the spring. Spring sown spores germinate in 1 - 3 months at 15°c. Pot on small clumps of plantlets as soon as they are large enough to handle and grow them on in light shade in a greenhouse. Keep the plants humid until they are well established. Once the plants are 15cm or more tall, plant them out into their permanent positions in the spring.

Walls and crevices of mainly basic rocks.