Ferns

[McDonough]

Cohan, you might want to try Athyrium niponicum var. pictum, if you can get your hands on it.  It survived two years sitting in a small pot, the pot just sitting on the ground totally exposed, through a couple of very tough winters.  I suspect it is extremely hardy.  There are some recent-ish hybrids with this species, but I find they are not as hardy, so I'll stick with the original.

[Lori S.]

I'm not sure if I have Athyrium niponicum (I don't pay as much attention as I should to the ferns I have) but Athyrium filix-femina x niponicum 'Branford Beauty' (below, though not a great specimen!) is hardy here, as is A. filix-femina (which I see is a native species):


(Uggh, what a messy photo!  That area has been shaded by 8-foot tall 'Therese Bugnet' roses, and is hard to get into, so it's always thick with Campanula trachelium and greater celandine seedlings - but it will be renovated this year!)

Geoffrey and Mark, your ferns are spectacular!

[McDonough]

Thanks Lori.  I have bought 'Branford Beauty' twice, and each time it died over winter, maybe it jusy needs to get firmly established before winter, so I'll try again with an earlier spring planting.  I have tried a couple other similar crosses coming from the fabulous garden of Nick Nicou, of Branford, CT, but I have yet to establish them with the exception of one that is just hanging on. These new hybrid ferns are in vogue, thus VERY expensive, and I bought them in late summer when perennials are discounted, I think the late planting is the problem.

[cohan]

Nice silvery fern, Lori.
Mark, I'll have to look more closely at the ferns offered this year-- they have seemed to be mostly offered in 6" or larger pots, and I don't often want to spend that much on one plant...lol- more likely to buy several small plants, or more often yet, seeds!

There are some nice things available mail order, but that's even more money all at once 
Just have to get some more spores one of these days - Kristl at Gardens North has offered a fair number of species...

[Hoy]

I alreadyhave some very nice ferns but I can have more! Fall planting usually isn't problematic here, on the contrary as May-June usually are the driest months and new plants have to be watered.

I am also drawn in all directions and can't make up my mind whether to consentrate on this or that or both! Therefore I have both spores germinating and cactus seeds!

[Geo F-W]

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.

Mark, your Adiantum is not a Adiantum venustum, but an Adiantum pedatum, because Adiantum aleuticum produces green, not cherry red, new growth (so, in fact, Adiantum aleuticum 'Japonicum' would be a pedatum...). This is a very good fern which is well hardy and very tolerant once installed, your picture clearly shows it.
Adiantum venustum is more adaptable but less cold hardy (zone 5) and has a different look.

Your pictures are stunning, I always wanted to try one or two Cypripedium, but I've never done, I love the shades of yellow and bronze of Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, a very beautiful plant.

About Dryopteris wallichiana, it would be hardy to zone 6... So I imagine that it would need some protections in zone 5. The young wallichiana are sensitive to frost, so here, I plant large specimens, and only in spring, with a follow sprinkler (? not sure about the expression...) for 1 year.

In the same kind, I love Dryopteris cycadina, the beautiful Dryopteris crassirrhizoma, the big fern Dryopteris x complexa 'Robusta'.

About Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum, I completely agree, it is tolerant to many conditions.
I especially like three selections of Athyrium nipponicum : Athyrium nipponicum 'Applecourt', the crested painted fern, Athyrium 'Branford Rambler', it's a creeping fern, a cross between painted fern and the lady fern, and Athyrium 'Ghost', also a cross between painted and lady fern. All three are quite showy and it is never easy to associate them in the garden.

But the lady fern has very nice selections also : 'Frizelliae', 'Frizelliae multifidum', 'Victoriae', 'Pseudovictoriae', 'Vernoniae', 'Plumosum Axminster', 'Lady In Red' etc..

Rick, Hoy and Cohan, thank you for your comments. In truth, I had not seen you live in so cold areas! While I often complain not to live in zone 9-10 on the west coast of France...

Does one of you grow Dryopteris x australis or Dryopteris goldiana? Both are large ferns, which are becoming very attractive when they are mature after a few years of cultivation, and adaptable to zone 4/5.

[RickR]

I grow Dryopteris tokyoensis....
It hangs on (for ten years) in dry part shade among Sugar maple roots.  Never more than a foot high  .  I don't know if it is because it is too cold here in zone 4, or because of the clay based, rich, dry soil.

Adiantum venustum does quite well here, in the right places, of course.

[McDonough]

Geoffrey, thanks for the positive ID on my Adiantum pedatum, nice to be sure about what it is. 

I have tried Athyrium 'Ghost' twice before, and each tim it "gave up the ghost" after just one season.  It should be hardy, but again, I think spring planting is probably better than autumn planting, for more established plants and better hardiness.

After a quick google search I found the Hardy Fern Library, an excellent resource! I have bookmarked it and will be studying and looking up the ferns that are being mentioned here.  Are there other fern web sites that fern newbies should know about?
http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/home.cfm

Rick, I looked up Dryopteris tokyoensis, another new one for me.
http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/listSpecies.cfm?Auto=39

I'd like to hear from any US nargs members regarding purchasing ferns, what mail order nurseries do you have experience with?

[Hoy]

Hi Geoffrey, I am not sure which ferns i grow! I just buy those I like or sow spores and plant out everywhere I think they fit in! Maybe I should make an inventory of my ferns

[Geo F-W]

Well Rick, Dryopteris tokyoensis grows in wet and acidic soil in its natural habitat. Here she seems to be happy in my cool and neutral soil, and it's approximately 90cm (35 inches). So it is surely drought that blocks growth indeed.

Mark, I often planted in the fall here because the winters are never very strict (except there are about ten days here where the freezing weather has hit us ...), but the plants I really afraid of losing, I always plant in the spring. Plants are more established when winter comes.

Otherwise, in addition to the Hardy Fern Foundations, there is the American Fern Society ( http://amerfernsoc.org/ ) and the British Pteridological Society (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bps/), and there are others.
I often look at these two blogs (http://varenplanten.blogspot.com/ and http://varenbos.blogspot.com/), a Dutch ferns-lover, which transforms a forest in southern France, in Ardèche, in a woodland of ferns.

Hoy, if you grow lots of ferns, it might be interesting to inventory them indeed! ^ ^ It could be funny!

[Harold Peachey]

Mark,
Two of the best sources for ferns are on the west coast, Sue Olsen http://www.foliagegardens.com/ and Judith the fern lady http://www.fancyfronds.com/list.cfm.  Fancy Fronds has a large selection of ferns hardy in our region.  I am growing Dropteris tokyoensis in my garden and Ellen Hornig had some magnificant specimens in her garden at Oswego.  You should be able to grow all the hardy Athyriums, spring planting is recommended.  Adiantum venustum grows like a week here, but Adiantum aleuticum subpumillum that I have started from spore struggles to barely survive, I keep trying possible sittings to encourage it.

[RickR]

Thanks Geoffrey, regarding D. tokyoensis.  Unfortunately I hardly even have any constantly moist areas, let alone wet.   Oh well.  The maple was hit late in the year by a severe case of verticillium wilt, so maybe it will completely go...

[Hoy]

Hoy, if you grow lots of ferns, it might be interesting to inventory them indeed! ^ ^ It could be funny!

Interesting to have it - not to do it
In my work I have a lot of paper work - or laptop work these days so I try to avoid it in my spare time (forum time don't count  )

[Jan Jeddeloh]

Geoffrey, that Adiantum pedatum "Japonicum" is stunning.  Any chance of spore next year?  Hint, Hint.  I even have an import permit and I've been fairly successful growing ferns from spore.  I use the peat pellet method because it's stupid simple.  It even seems to work for dryland ferns but you must transplant the prothallia early.  I start them all under lights inside.

Right now I've got at least half a dozen varieties coming from spore.  I'd post them but I have COL (cat on lap ) so I can't go down and check.  I know I have Woodwardia fimbriata, Polystichum vestitum, Doodia aspera at least to prothalia stage right now.  My greenhouse has Polypodium hesperium and Asplenum trichomanes plumosum coming along.  I also just repotted my Cyathea milnei babies.  Most of those are traveling north to the WWSW to be given to a friend who lives on the coast (mild enough to grow it) and Judith Jones.

Jan 

[Geo F-W]

Jan, here I use plastic mini-greenhouses and sowing on sterilized leaf mold. I would have tried with xerics ferns.
Yes, I suppose I should have spores of Adiantum aleuticum (pedatum) 'Japonicum', in truth, I've never tried to sow many Adiantum (Adiantum hispidulum this year, so far all goes well, the prothallia are there, still no initial frond).

I do not know, me neither, precisely the species that I sowed this year...There are some species I have sowed for the fun as Gleichenia quadripartita, Blechnum minus, Lastreopsis hispida, Blechnum niponicum etc..
Others are quite common, many different Asplenium scolopendrium, Asplenium x ebenoides, Dryopteris wallichiana, cycadina, crassirhizoma, odontoloma, Athyrium otophorum, Hypolepis glanduligera, Dryopteris coreano-montana, some Pteris (many form of P.cretica, umbrosa, wallichiana, vittata etc.) etc.
All are currently at the stage of prothalli, some first fronds begin to appear.
I had some problems in some mini-greenhouses with white rot...Hard to get contamination under control in a mini-greenhouse.

I'd love to plant Polystichum vestitum here, it's an absolutely beautiful fern, but I'm a little afraid of damages due to cold.