Looking great in the garden this week is one of our many favorite ferns, Microlepia strigosa ‘MacFaddeniae’. This interesting selection of the Japanese native fern was named for the garden of California’s Fay MacFadden, who got it from California’s Mr. Baldwin Nursery in the 1920s. Most winters it remains evergreen for us, but can become tardily deciduous during very cold winters. Here, it forms a slowly spreading patch to 3′ wide in 5 years, composed of 2′ long, narrow, arching, deeply-lobed fronds. It probably holds the record as the worst selling fern we’ve ever offered, which is why we haven’t propagated it in over a decade. Hardiness Zone 7b-10, at least.
