When do ferns grow

Though most ferns are not fussy about soil pH, some types prefer acidic soil. Check the pH of your soil and choose ferns that will be happy in those growing conditions. Some ferns will tolerate all day sun, provided the soil is good and doesn't dry out.

Interrupted ferns and cinnamon ferns are good choices for a relatively sunny location. For sites with dry soil, choose Christmas ferns or lady ferns. If a period of unusually hot weather causes your ferns to wither, cut them back to the ground and they will regrow once temperatures cool down.

Most ferns die back to the ground in late fall, though some, such as Christmas fern, stay green right through the winter. There's no need to remove spent foliage. Leaving it in place will help insulate the roots from extreme cold.

The decaying fronds also add valuable organic matter to the soil. Ferns are very long-lived and rarely need dividing. In warm or dry climates, mulching them with shredded leaves will help keep the soil moist and the roots cool.

Shop HERE for ferns. Learn more about ferns and shade gardening:. Best Ferns for Gardens and Landscapes. Best Ground Covers for Shade. Nearly all ferns grow best in moist but well-drained soil, though some will thrive in dry shade.

The hard fern Blechnum spicant and the shuttlecock fern Matteuccia struthiopteris , are invaluable shade plants. In this video, Steven Fletcher of Fernatix gives his three golden rules when caring for them, to keep them healthy and ensure fantastic feathery foliage. This evergreen Himalayan maidenhair fern, Adiantum venustum , does well in shade or dappled shade. Its delicate, light green fronds darken with age.

Protect from wind. You often see British native Asplenium scolopendrium growing wild — if you spot it in your local area, it will probably grow well in your garden. A cultivar of Asplenium scolopendrium , Crispum Group is an eye-catching evergreen that has distinctive wavy edges that become more pronounced as the plant matures.

Deciduous painted Japanese fern Athyrium niponicum is flushed with silver and burgundy, making it an unusual, eye-catching choice. There are several pretty cultivars.

Known as the autumn fern, Dryopteris erythrosora is an unusual fern with red new growth in spring, which eventually turns bronze and then green. In spring, deciduous fern Dryopteris wallichiana unfurls to produce striking fronds that are 90cm high. If you have the space, it looks particularly effective planted in a group.

The shuttlecock fern, or ostrich fern Matteuccia struthiopteris is not a British native, but has naturalised in parts of Britain. It prefers a moist soil. This delicate fern, Onychium japonicum , is known as the carrot fern, as its foliage resembles that of a carrot top. Also known as the royal fern, Osmunda regalis is a deciduous fern with a stately look, that can reach quite a size.

Its foliage turns bronze in autumn. It likes a damp spot. Polystichum polybelpharum is an easy-to-grow evergreen, also known as the Japanese tassel fern. The tips of the fronds are covered in golden hairs which give it an alternative name of the golden tassel fern. If the fern requires alkaline conditions, you can add a tablespoon of ground limestone to a gallon of planting mix. Ferns sold by mail may have been removed from their pots and put in plastic bags or they may be almost bare rooted.

When you unpack the plants make sure that the growing tip has not been damaged during shipping. If it has been broken or has rotted, the fern will probably not recover and the shipper should be notified immediately.

Depending on size, either pot the fern or plant it in a protected spot and keep it well watered until it has had a chance to establish itself. If the roots seem at all dry, set the plant in water for one to two hours while you are preparing the planting area. Some ferns may be purchased as small bare rooted plants packed in dry peat moss in a plastic bag. In theory, there is enough humidity in the bag to prevent desiccation of the plant; in practice, ferns do not appreciate being bare rooted, and while they will certainly rot if they are enclosed with wet peat, they are generally dry enough to need a recovery period.

Unless you can actually see signs of active growth such as a crozier beginning to uncurl, bare rooted plants are best avoided. Often the growing tip has been damaged by handling, or the peat has become completely dry.

If you do try ferns sold this way, soak them in water for a couple of hours and pot them using a good, well draining potting mix. Be careful to keep the growing tips at or above soil level.

Keep well watered and transplant to the garden after they have become established. Another disadvantage of ferns sold bare root is that they are frequently dug up from the wild. How far apart should you plant your ferns? Spacing depends on form, size and type of growth. Crown formers with upright rhizomes and vase-shaped form spread slowly and show to best advantage as a single crown. Goldie's fern and some of the larger growing polystichums and osmundas may need three feet or more between plants.

Oak and beech ferns spread quickly and can be planted fairly far apart. Hay-scented, New York and Virginia chain fern are even more rampant spreaders, and the ostrich fern, which spreads by far-ranging runners, is best planted in an area where it can be controlled.

Both fern fronds and roots grow directly from the stem, which is also known as the rhizome. All new growth is produced at the stem tip, and if it is damaged the entire plant may be killed. The roots grow at the base of the fronds, or on the lower side of creeping rhizomes. In all ferns they are close to the surface and easily disturbed. Upright-growing rhizomes form a distinct crown consisting of the tightly coiled croziers at the soil surface, which grow in spring into a whorl of fronds that radiate from the center like a vase.

These may grow out of the ground to form small trunks. The roots that grow at the base of the fronds are then exposed to the air and can dry out. If crowns lift themselves out of the soil they need to be replanted to return them to soil level. Adding one to two inches of mulch each year may make replanting unnecessary. Rakes, hoes and feet do not belong in the fern garden.

Surface roots, tightly coiled croziers and developing fiddleheads are too easily damaged. Leave a place to walk, and remove by hand winter-burned evergreen fronds and any other garden debris before the fiddleheads begin to unfurl in spring. If you choose plants suited to your growing conditions and practice good gardening hygiene, removing debris that may harbor pests, you may seldom have to deal with diseases or pests. Slugs and snails tend to be the most common problems; they are voracious eaters that thrive under the same conditions as ferns.

Slug baits containing metaldehyde are effective, but they are toxic and especially hazardous to children and pets. Various nontoxic baits and traps are safer: Dishes of beer sunk to soil level are effective. Slugs will also collect under overturned grapefruit shells and can then be dropped into denatured alcohol for the coup de grace.

Ferns are quite sensitive to insecticides. If you must use a chemical poison, test it on a few plants. Avoid the liquid emulsion sprays, as they contain oils that damage ferns. Use dusts or sprays made from wettable powders, reducing the recommended dosage by one half. To prevent disease, start with healthy plants. Keep the crown of the plant above the soil, and don't cover it with mulch.

Avoid overwatering and space the plants far enough apart for adequate air circulation. Mulching with fine pine bark, pine needles or a fairly coarse compost will help keep the soil moist, prevent weeds or at least make them easier to pull and provide essentially all the nutrients your ferns need. Replenish the mulch each year to compensate for the tendency of certain athyriums or dryopteris to raise their crowns above soil level.

Nancy Swell grows and propagates a wide variety of hardy ferns in her garden in Richmond, Virginia. I am looking to divide some ferns that are growing in my yard. I live in Zone 5, Catskill mountains. We definitely get snow by November here. What is the growing depth of a hardy fern Zone 6 and can they be planted around a tree with an upward growing root system like the English maple? My southern wood ferns are much smaller this year half to two-thirds the size they have been for over 20 years!

I live in Dallas in a heavily treed neighborhood of post oaks. I have never fertilized them but water regularly. One area where the ferns are smaller is now getting more sun after a tree was removed 3 years ago, but in another area where no change in conditions has taken place, the ferns are smaller also.

It is midsummer now and I just added peat and hardwood mulch, but to no effect yet. Living in central Louisiana, Zone 9, allows me a wide range of fern options. Have grown many different species successfully and some not so…this article helped me see where I went wrong.

Thank you for insuring future healthy plants. Is there a recommended way to thin out a fern bed? We have about a thousand square feet of ferns across several beds that have gotten extremely thick in the past year to the point of unattractiveness. Jane, give them a few weeks to see if they recover—which will be slow if at all.

I planted two autumn ferns and the hot dry air has killed the leaves even though I have kept them watered. Will they come back out? We have ostrich ferns Matteuccia growing in our back garden. The fronds grow up to 55 inches and look great—when standing.