In fall, when everyone is rushing to bring their fern baskets indoors when the weather forecast calls for frost, we can be focusing on other garden chores, because our fern baskets remain outside during the winter. That’s because, instead of selecting tropical ferns, we use epiphytic (that naturally grow on trees) ferns of the genus,
Winter Fern Baskets Read More »
While many woodland ferns go dormant in fall, there are actually quite a few that remain evergreen through the winter months. One of our favorites is the compact Asian (China, Japan, Korea) native, Dryopteris uniformis ‘Cristata’, with each pinnae ending in a ruffled petticoat. Below is our 20″ tall x 2′ wide clump in early
Winter Petticoats Read More »
Most people wander through life so fast, they miss many of the small joys, like appreciating the diversity of fern spore patterns. As you can see in the photos below, each genus of fern has its own unique spore arrangement, which are used by taxonomists to determine who is related to who. Some spores form
Preceding Pre-seeding Read More »
With 145 species in the fern genus, Ctenitis (pronounced tinnitus), you’d think everyone with a woodland garden would have at least one, but sadly, that isn’t the case. In fact, we’d bet there are few Ctenitis ferns grown anywhere is cultivation. Our favorite species is the tardily deciduous Ctenitis subglandulosa ‘Hoshizaki’, which hails from Bhutan
Ctenitis ringing in the Ears Read More »
We just snapped this photo of one of our more amazing fern introductions, Microsorum buergerianum ‘Datun’. This six year-old clump is from our 2008 spore collection of this fabulous mat forming, epiphytic fern from north of Taipei, Taiwan. Although the foliage burnt back at 11 degrees F, it re-flushed quickly the following spring. Hardiness Zone
Evergreen Fern Mat Read More »
Pyrrosia polydactyla ‘Middle Finger’ is an excellent clone of the Taiwanese native five-fingered tongue fern with an exceptionally long middle pinnae. Quite a few nurseries, especially in the Pacific Northwest, offer this as another clumping, but uniquely different species, Pyrrosia hastata. In the garden, it’s quite at home in dry shade, especially happy growing on
Middle Finger Fern Read More »
Here’s a recent view from our home drive. The amazing fern patch, growing in full baking sun, is a selection of the US native Lindheimer’s maiden fern, Thelypteris ovata var. lindheimeri, which we collected a couple of decades ago, near Austin Texas, and subsequently named Thelypteris ‘Austin City Limits’. For the sake of full disclosure,
Austin City Limits Read More »
Looking divine in the garden is the giant Taiwan table fern, Pteris wallichiana ‘Hualien Giant’. This originated from our 2008 expedition in Hualien County at 7,900′ elevation, and has performed amazingly well in moist, compost amended soil, in light shade. In the wild, it reached almost 8′ tall, but our plant so far has only
Taiwan Table Fern Read More »
This year, two families of house finches, Haemorhous mexicanus, decided that our Pyrrosia fern baskets were the perfect place to raise their young. Two of three baskets outside our bedroom are filled with the sounds of youngsters, constantly bugging their parents for another happy meal. It usually takes less than two weeks from birth to
Finding Home with a Bunch of Ferners Read More »
Unless you’re from a more tropical climate, you probably aren’t used to growing table ferns (Pteris) outdoors in the garden. About 30 years ago, I began a mission to collect and evaluate winter hardy forms of a number of species in a genus that’s almost exclusively tropical. Below is our patch of Pteris cretica ‘Ping
Table Fern in the Garden Read More »
