Our hanging basket of the evergreen Pyrrosia lingua ‘Corymbifera’ is looking lovely as we head toward another fall season. This Japanese selection of the epiphytic tongue fern has excellent vigor, forming a dense clump either in a container or in the ground. This moss-lined basket is now six years old, and lives outdoors year round in our Zone 7b/8a climate. If you live in colder climates, pyrrosias also make excellent house plants.
After seeing yours in the garden I made several baskets. Will see how they do with their first winter in the garden 7b Va. So enjoy reading these daily readings.
After seeing your spectacular hanging baskets in the garden on the free member tour in early February 2024, and asking if you brought them indoors on very cold nights (no!), I was inspired to buy several Pyrrosia from you and create my own hanging baskets. They made it through last winter beautifully, as well as dry spells in both summers. Question: if your baskets are going on six years, have you ever refreshed the potting mix or added fertilizer or compost to the baskets, and if so, how often and what time of year? (I’m in northern Wake County, NC, supposedly now zone 8A although I don’t trust that quite yet. After all, 40 years ago we were zone 7A.)
Great question. Since they are epiphytes, we haven’t found the need to repot/replenish the soil or add nutrition so far.
Super picture….thank you Sue Olsen
Sorry to be late to the party. Good to know these can be left outside more (on really cold nights I bring mine into the garage). Does anyone plant these in baskets mixed with other plants? The following are my two mixed baskets. About 3 years old.
We haven’t tried any mixed baskets, but experimentation is where we all learn.
One basket: Pyrrosia hastata ‘Storm Watch’, P. lingua Alabama Gold’ and Coniogramme Emeiensis ‘Golden Zebra’ Bamboo Fern.
Other basket: P. lingua ‘Futaba Shishi’, Begonia formosana, B. emeiensis (DJHC98479).
Nice photos! Just bought this lovely fern today. I planted it in a hollowed log where it will have room to spread. The only other ferns I’ve planted this way are our PNW native polypodium, and I’ve had success with them even growing on English laurel logs!
Wish me luck!