I like Bishops weed and like Sammigirl showed in the right place it works great.
Doss, That is one great lookin fern, I hope it comes back for you!
This message was edited Apr 2, 2007 9:34 PM
Favorite Fern Picture
I'm not sure which fern this is but it is one of my favorites.
This is not necessarily a favorite fern pic, but it's definitely a favorite fern.
These chain ferns come back better every year. They sure seem happy today.
Deb
Love the chain fern - that's one we don't see here - but then there are a lot we don't see here.
Doss: I'm pretty sure no one planted the chain ferns here, because I see them in the woods nearby alot. These just keep popping back up along the back wall of my little (wet) shady garden by my front walk. They're evergreen some years. (Depends on how cold it gets.) Been in this house for 3 years and this is the largest they've ever been this early in the season.
Deb
Native is somehow even better. Did you have a mild winter?
I love the picture from Sammigirl and am currently working on a spot in my yard that will eventually look like that. Where can I get bishops weed and will it be as successful in North Georgia?
You can definitely find it on line in a lot of places. Or you could ask your local nursery if they carry it.
Here are the DG vendors that carry it:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/546/
Doss: Yes we had a very mild winter. Quite a few plants that aren't supposed to be hardy in our zone had no trouble over-wintering...and those that are hardy seem really healthy.
Deb
It's winter time and I am yearning to see me plants...so I resort to my pictures now and found this one from last summer.
This picture is currently on my desktop.
Adiantum venustum AKA -Himalayan Maidenhair Fern, Evergreen Maidenhair Fern
Oh,maidenhair is one of my favorites. NIce photo.
I don't have a favorite one yet. I keep trying to grow them in a container on my balcony, but so far not too much luck. However, I have a volunteer that must have come with a hosta I bought earlier this year. Can anyone identify it? On second thought, is it a weed?
This message was edited Dec 19, 2007 11:06 PM
Japanese Painted Fern is the one! I live in Zone 3-4 and the fern survives our grueling winters. I'm moving mine to the front shade garden this year as my garden focal point.
Northern that's a beautiful one! To bad your file isn't bigger, it's hard to see. It's a beautiful plant you have.
revclaus-looks like a fern to me :o) I don't know which one, but let it grow!
Japanese Painted fern is always lovely. They grow much better in your neck of the woods NS than they do in mine. They love the winter chill. Here they just languish.
revclaus,
It's hard to tell for sure from your photo but your fern looks similar to the Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis) that pops up here and there in my garden.
This message was edited Jan 15, 2008 4:18 PM
I was looking through this thread today at all the beautiful photos posted. I just can't wait until the spring when the new growth shows. In the meantime I have a variegated Indian Holly Fern( Arachniodes simplicior) that still looks relatively good in the middle of the winter. Once the February cold comes it will disappear and not return until very late spring.
This message was edited Jan 16, 2008 12:05 AM
Nice fern. I love that one. It has so much character.
sempervirens
I love Arachhniodes simplicior and wish I could grow it here, we are Z5b, with our snow cover I can grow some plants that are rated Z6, I don't believe that enough for this fern, isn't it a Z7 plant?
Nice picture, by the way.
Shady
Great pics in this thread. I think ferns are especially photogenic plants. I've also been missing my plants a lot right now. My favorite fern is also Maidenhair, but mine aren't much to look at yet. The best fern picture I have from last season are my Japanese Painted Ferns, which seem to be growing like crazy here. I know that I will have to thin them out this summer if they continue as they are doing.
What a beautiful planting with the creeping Jenny, hostas and astilbe.
Very nice shade garden Noreaster. I especially like the maidenhair ferns toward the back of your photo and wish I could grow them. Anyone have hints on growing it successfully? I have tried twice and lost it both times. Two of my gardening friends in my area also have had no luck with that fern.
Thanks doss and Shadyfolks for the compliments on the fern and photo. Our weather of late has been unusually warm without snow cover so the garden still looks like a somewhat tattered late fall still. I'm waiting for the ground to freeze to cover the garden with the evergreen boughs of the 8 Christmas trees I cut up. Picture someone dragging discarded evergreens through suburban streets trying to look like it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Shadyfolks, the variegated holly fern is listed as hardy from zone 6 - 9 in "Ferns for American Gardens" by John Mickel. It also states it doesn't appear until early June in NY. I have 3 and they take their time to fill out and look best toward the end of summer for me. I do cover them with evergreen boughs after the ground freezes and they live in a fairly heavily mulched ground of leaf litter and spruce needles.They seem to be a good companion for the spring ephemerals. There is one caution for anyone gardening in warmer zones, they might be invasive in NC where they have escaped the garden and have been found in colonies in the wild.
Thanks doss and sempervirens. I've only had my maidenhair ferns for two seasons now...I hope I won't have problems with them in the future, as well...would sure hate to lose those. I'd like to hear tips, too.
My maidenhair ferns are happiest where they are protected under the eaves. They should be hardy here so I'm not sure why.
I did read that they like a slightly alkaline soil.
I read that too about the soil, doss....which could explain why mine don't seem to do quite as well as the other ferns I have. Should I sprinkle lime around them, do you think? (very acid soil here)
You could certainly try it. It couldn't hurt..
Maiden hair - I have also heard that they like alkaline soil, but when I planted some, oh, probably 10 years ago I didn't know that. I stuck mine out in the woods, virtually no direct sun light, a high pretty dense canopy in sandy soil. A couple years ago I planted some tiny, tiny rhizomes in other perennial bed and they are living and hope they will soon start to take off.
Maybe some day if I come across the Indian Holly, I might try it. I just don't think I will go out of my way to find it so I can kill it :o)
Noreaster- I have to say that's a nice picture and what a beautiful section of your garden.
I have to say-It sure is nice looking at these great ferns pictures in the middle of January!!
Here's a fern - but I can't remember what it is. There are other ferns in this planting but they are too small to show right now. They are up under the Japanese Maple tree. It's fun in the middle of winter to see, anyway.
doss Is that possibly an ostrich fern? The habit looks like it could be.
I looked it up and it's Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern)
Doss,
What a beautiful corner, so nicely laid out. Must have taken a lot of planning? Is that a tree fern I see in the back corner??
Yes, it's a tree fern in a very silly place under a Japanese Maple. Of course it will outgrow this space but they are easy to transplant. They do grow slowly but I've seen them here reach the rooftops.
That corner is pretty overplanted although I do love the effect. The Lady Fern is just in the wrong place or I need to get to love it where it is.
You sound like me.....
There is a saying and I don't know who said it and I don't remember it to quote it, it went something like: a good garden spends half it's life in the wheelbarrow.
I know a few plants of mine that have gotten a couple of rides in the wheelbarrow, LOL! sounds like your garden is the same way :o)
I wish I could find out the exact quote and who said it.
I wish that you could remember it too! LOL
I don't remember to stop by this forum very often, but I am a sucker for ferns. So I've come to play......
Northern Maidenhair fern with a bit of Sensitive fern on the right and possibly some Asparagus fern.
More Sensitive Fern
More Northern Maidenhair fern
my favorite that i can not grow any more is
Pteris-argyraea AKA: Silver-Brake
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60943/
now that i have moved from a 10b to a 9a zone
i have tried 2 years now and it just doesn't like the winters here :-(
Dick
Dre's Dagger next to a Lady in Red
northern maidenhair or 5 finger also one of my favorites grows great here :-)
Adiantum-pedatum
