Looking lovely in the garden this week, is the popular Asian garden fern, Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’. This Casa Flora introduction is slightly shorter than the typical species, with new fronds that are more colorful. We remove the old fronds of autumn fern, in very early spring, so they won’t visually interfere with the amazing new foliage.
I’ve been hesitant to remove the old fronds of this fern because I thought it might be stressful for a plant that wants to be evergreen, and the old tissue doesn’t look too bad in late winter. But old fronds went into noticeable decline after the new fronds emerged.
Maybe I should rethink this, if the plant doesn’t seem to mind annual beheading.
Beautiful