I think so , too , Gattina . Is it growing wild ?

Well, Driad, let's put it like this - I didn't plant it, but the lady who planted this garden 10-20 years ago put all sorts of things in that pop up all unexpected-like from time to time! It'd be nice to be able to identify it accurately. Seriously, I very much doubt it's wild - there is nothing remotely like this in the surrounding countryside.

Well , I've noticed that we seem to be getting an excess of the weed Angelica this year , the country verges are full of it ; last year it was a tall yellow effort that was omnipresent .
It maybe the odd conditions that cause them to flourish , so it might be the extreme cold that you had there this winter , do you think ?

I'm not sure - I wouldn't have thought so, since this, I think is a typically Mediterranian plant that thrives in warm, dry rocky places, not mountains with unbelievably cold winters!

I think it is a helianthemum. Common name rock rose. It is not a weed but used extensively in rock gardens. It can tolerate dry sandy soil. They come in lots of colours.

Hi Gattina! Have just read your profile - it all sounds very exciting! I love the sound of things planted by the previous gardener "popping up". I am a sucker for self-seeders, and find it very difficult to remove anything unless it really is beyond the pale. The wall your plant is growing out of looks lovely! (I'm a sucker for walls, as well, although ours are very English red brick!)

It is indeed (as Scotsgran suggested), Helianthemum. I would even suggest that it is called - Wisley Primrose.

Handy plants to have, useful fillers and features.

They grow wild here, Gattina. It seems every crevice on the rocky sunny side of cliffs is heaving with them at SUNNY times of the year!!!!!! :o( I once tried to encourage a couple of cuttings to take in my garden wall, but they didn't seem to like it. Maybe I'll try again and cosset the cuttings in a pot first.

Thank you so much, everyone.
Well, now, don't you learn a lot on this site? Up 'til now I would have expected any plant whose name ended in -"anthemum" to have belonged to the daisy family, and it definitely doesn't. Isn't it strange that something so obviously un-English should be called the "Wisley primrose"?
I love it, and hope it'll seed itself, because I don't think it looks like the sort of plant you could take cuttings from, and the root disappears somewhere in the depths of the wall crevice.
Yes, Melchisedec, we have walls like this all over the place - very picturesque, but they come with their own set of problems: last night we had a very mild, 10 second long earth tremor, and the same a couple of days before (rattled the bedhead and the wardrobe doors) and we know we'll have to get the mortar out and start filling cracks between the stones again. Tiresome!

Nariz look at either of these websites for information on propagating helianthemums. http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene72cf.html

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helianthemum_oelandicum_ENBLA04.jpeg

Thanks Scotsgran - I'll let you know how I get on.

I have never tried propagating them but I am going to have a go now. They do say that they have a finite life so it would be a good idea to have some in reserve.