Ferns

[McDonough]

I would have a lot of selections of Epimediums to show if you're interested, including many hybrids of 'The Giant'.

Yes please, would love to see your Epimediums, particularly 'The Giant' hybrids.  Feel free to post in the Epimediums 2012 topic:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=943.0

I have to admit, I'm a fern "newbie".  I greatly admire ferns, but don't currently grow many, mostly because for many of years in my current location, my property was exposed, sunny, and hot and dry.  But finally with more shade in the yard now with maturing trees, I have decided to start introducing more ferns into the garden, I think they'll be a great complement to Epimediums.  I have taken note on the ferns species you mention, and will start looking towards a spring order of some good ferns, thanks for the suggestions.

By the way, young English is just fine

[Tim Ingram]

Geoffrey - I would be greatly interested in your experience with ferns. We grow quite a number even in the dry south-east of England, and I am keen to start growing them again from spores. I visited Martin Rickard many years ago, after seeing his extraordinary and superb displays at the Chelsea Show, and I am sure there is quite a revival again in their interest amongst gardeners. I am especially attracted by many of the xerophytic species, though these are grown by relatively few gardeners. Several of these grow well on a simple sand bed along with dryland alpines and provide good contrast.

[Geo F-W]

Thank you Rick! I see that the nargs and srgc forums are closely related!  

Yes please, would love to see your Epimediums, particularly 'The Giant' hybrids.  Feel free to post in the Epimediums 2012 topic:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=943.0

Ok, the first blooms of the 'Giants' hybrids will begin here in late March, so I would take plenty of pictures.(There are pictures of many epimediums in the flickr gallery under my name, at the bottom of my post).

There is an interesting book on ferns, very accessible, "Encyclopedia of Garden Ferns" by Sue Olsen, a good book, well illustrated.

Ferns are perfect companions for epimediums, indeed, particularly those with small or medium sizes like Gymnocarpium, Phegopteris, Polypodium etc.
Here I grow about an hundred of them, most are really easy to grow, some require a little more care and patience, as Pyrrosia ...

Tim, here the climate is quite wet (almost 1000mm / year) and the garden soil is clayey, which doesn't let me any choice for xerics species: container or, as you say, sand bed where they grow very well in full sun. So, the number of xerics ferns here is quite small at the moment: Cheilanthes tomentosa, Cheilanthes lanosa, Cheilanthes sinuata (Astrolepis sinuata), Pellaea rotundifolia, Pellaea falcata, Pellaea atropurpurea, Paraceterach muelleri.(many forms of Ceterach officinarum but it's not really a xeric fern)
I would try others but it's not always easy to find them in France...

By cons, if I often grown ferns from spores (it's incredibly easy isn'it?), I never even tried sowing xeric fern spores...Maybe later, I'm very encumbered by my little fern-seedling's greenhouses!

1 : Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata The King'

2 : Adiantum aleuticum 'Japonicum'

3 : Adiantum 'Miss Sharples'

4 : Adiantum venustum

5,6 : Onocloa sensibilis, for wet soil.

7 : Cystopteris lanosa

8 : Gymnocarpium dryopteris, a very good groundcover

9 : Phegopteris connectilis, wich is a very very good fern and a good companion for Epimediums.

[McDonough]

Geoffrey, I checked out your Flickr link, and WOW, many superb Epimediums there, I'm taking notes on some exciting named Epimedium hybrids I've not heard of.  I'm sure we'll be discussing these.

Regarding ferns, that's a super selection of ferns you show, please let us know which ones they are, I want to grow all of them!  I too have been intrigued by xeric ferns, but don't currently grow any, this topic can serve as a good reference for ones to try, as you have suggested.  Your annual rainfall is actually quite similar to what we get here in Northeastern USA.

[Geo F-W]

Ooops, I was sure that I put the identifications...I correct immediately.

Well Mark, if you have a rather sunny place, fairly dry and very well drained, try Cheilanthes tomentosa, the most adaptable of Cheilanthes in my opinion.

Here :

1,2,3 : Coniogramme emeiensis, one of my favourite! Often called "Bamboo fern". Easy from spores, I've got many babies.

4 : Blechnum penna-marina, a little groundcover, easy in half-shade in acidic or neutral soil.

5 : Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum', well known, but I love it, very colorfull.

6 : Polypodium cambricum, I don't know the name of the selection...Great with Epimedium!

7 : Polypodium cambricum 'Omnilacerum'

8, 9 : Dryopteris wallichiana

10 : Adiantum venustum, for me, the best of the Adiantum.

[cohan]

Lots of beauties Geoffrey! ferns are another group I have little of, but hope to have more someday! Likely a rather different set than yours for hardiness reasons!

[RickR]

What a wonderful assortment, Geoffrey.

I need to add to my pitifully small collection, too!

[Hoy]

Hi, Geoffrey, you have a fine collection!

[McDonough]

Geoffrey, what a super fine selection of ferns , my list of "must have" ferns just increased dramatically.  The red-pink color on Adiantum aleuticum 'Japonicum' is wonderful.  I'm partial to Adiantum, the one named 'Miss Sharples' is so fine and lacy.  I like the "fluffy" looking ferns very much, your first form of Polypodium cambricum is gorgeous.

But it is the upright vase-shaped ferns that I like best, like Dryopteris wallichiana that you show us, to add elegant vertical accent in the woodland garden.  So this one goes to the top of my list for fern acquisitions 2012

I have an Adiantum growing in my garden since I moved into my current home 25 years ago.  Just spent about 1-1/2 hours looking for photos, I know that one spring season over the last few years i took lots of photos capturing the fronds as they emerge, but can not find them (I take thousands of photos, most live with their generic digital names until I have time to go through them and rename them).  I did find a few general garden views where the Adiantum is present, I think it is A. pedatum, or A. aleuticum, but could it be venustum? If I'm wrong, please let me know.

Here are some garden views of what I think is Adiantum pedatum, co-mingling with Epimedium, Pulmonaria, and Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, from the red emerging shoots, chartreuse young unfurling leaflets, to the dark stemmed green leafy canopy by early May.

[Tim Ingram]

What a glorious mix of plants! I grow several adiantums but, oh, I wish I had clumps of cypripedium like that too. Woodland plants like this I think are gardening at its very best, and probably also more accessible for many gardeners than the more esoteric alpine plants that many of us love so much. So now which way do I turn - the long wanted tufa garden or the 'woodland'? Nothing better than such a choice!

[McDonough]

On the forums I too get pulled in this direction or that.  I marvel at eye-popping hardy cacti and incredible Yucca plants seen on NARGS, to such an extent that I mentally reconsider my "no spiny plants and glochid-free gardening" doctrine, but when it comes down to it, soft fluffy fronds, feathery foliage, and foamy flowers in the woodland garden take precedence.  So, I'm still on the fence about whether I start a hardy cacti garden, but creating a sunny enbankment full of hardy succulents (Sedum, Sempervivum, Delosperma and company) is definitely on my agenda for the 2012 season.

I remember visiting one of the most remarkable private gardens in Seattle (although can't remember the owner's name), one that featured ferns almost exclusively; it left an indelible impression on my garden sensibility, one that I feel compelled to pursue some 28 years hence.

[cohan]

Nice ferns and woodland setting, Mark! I too love woodlands and woodland gardens, but also the rocky crags and gravel flats of other settings-- why choose one or the other unless your property only accommodates the one habitat? Unfortunately (since I love open spaces and blazing sun as well) I have a lot more woodland/woodland edge meadow than truly sunny spots, but I will still aim for some of each!

[McDonough]

Nice ferns and woodland setting, Mark! I too love woodlands and woodland gardens, but also the rocky crags and gravel flats of other settings-- why choose one or the other unless your property only accommodates the one habitat? Unfortunately (since I love open spaces and blazing sun as well) I have a lot more woodland/woodland edge meadow than truly sunny spots, but I will still aim for some of each!

When I first moved to my 1-3/4 acre property, I had 1 acre of full blazing sun, then the property falls off in the back, my lower 3/4 acre is steep and dry woodland (mostly sugar maple), this area beyond reasonable reach of a hose.  I wasted a lot of money in the early years here planting Rhododendrons, just to have them totally dessicate in winter (too sunny and wind-exposed on a hill).  In the 25 years I've been here, trees I've planted now provide some much needed shade, and the wooded south side boundary to my property has grown in and providing a good amount of open shade, so I can finally grow shade loving plants without them frying in the sun.

So I still have lots of open space for rock gardens and sun-loving plants in general.  But I am trying to narrow my focus; for example, tempted by hardy cacti, but judging by gardens I've seen in New England where hardy cacti are grown, our climate is not optimum for them and they look tatty and disheveled; haven't seen a cacti garden here that I've liked yet.  There are plenty of things that grow particularly well here, so why not focus my interests, not a bad idea for us plantaholics that like everything.

[McDonough]

One of my favorite ferns is a common one, Athyrium niponicum var. pictum, the Japanese Painted Fern.  For two years it languished in a pot in my "nursery seedling area" which is sunny and hot, and the fronds would crisp in the sun. It survived drought conditions.  I finally moved it to the north side of my house, getting shade from the shadow of the house, and it looked much better in that position, with perfectly gorgeous silver fronds.

[cohan]

For sure- working with plants that like your climate is a good idea! (when its possible to know what those are....lol)
Frankly, I've seen few cactus gardens I liked outside the obvious places where they especially thrive.. but not necessarily because the plants may not do well- just because they tend to be collections of plants rather than gardens- many of the growers need to broaden their interests to other sorts of dryland plants that will grow well with and complement the cacti and yuccas (the other obsession of cold hardy cactus growers)- so the garden is not just a series of single cacti dotted through the gravel.....

The painted fern is lovely, I've seen them (not here) but not grown... the big commercial garden centres here carry a number of ferns in summer, not sure if the plants they carry are actually hardy here- often they are shipped from head office in Toronto or something-- apparently no one told them its colder here..