Fern

Athyrium filix-femina, commonly called lady fern, is a deciduous fern that features lacy-cut, erect or ascending, light green fronds which grow in a dense circular shuttlecock-like clump to 2-3′ tall.  This is a circumglobal species which is found in rich moist woods, thickets, fields, meadows and ravines throughout northern North America,…

Southern Maidenhair Fern is a clumping, deciduous fern cultivated worldwide for its delicate, frilly looks and hardy nature. It is native to a huge part of the Earth, in temperate and tropical regions from the Southern half of the U.S. to Central America, South America, Europe, large parts of Asia and…

Common in forested stream bottoms and damp slopes and ravines across Eastern North America, Christmas fern is the workhorse fern for gardens and naturalized areas in the mid-Atlantic region. It is a sturdy, attractive, medium sized (2 foot) fern which is evergreen (though the fronds fall flat on the ground in…

Sensitive Fern is a very handsome, very vigorous, running deciduous perennial fern. It is “sensitive” only to the first frost in the late fall, and perhaps to drought — but very hardy otherwise! It is widely reported to be two- to three-foot tall and taller in wet soil, but we have…

Cinnamon Fern is an ancient, widespread and handsome fern native to North and South America as well as to Asia. It is found in swamps and moist woodlands as well as in upland gardens, in acidic soils from wet to moist/well drained. The fiddleheads of the fertile fronds, covered with cinnamon-colored…

Log fern is a fertile, naturally occurring, semi-evergreen hybrid between D. ludoviciana (Southern Shield Fern) and D. goldiana (Goldie’s Wood Fern) with a range in central, eastern and southeastern U.S. Log fern grows rapidly with wide, shiny, deeply cut, dark green fronds and dark stripes along the central rib. The sori,…

Marginal Wood Fern is a smallish ( 1.5 – 2 foot high), well behaved, evergreen fern found in shady, rocky slopes in most of eastern U.S. In North Carolina, is is found in mountain counties and a few piedmont counties. It is clump-forming and non-colonizing, propagated by root crown division and…

Northern Maidenhair Fern, native to moist woods throughout Eastern U.S. (except Florida), is a lovely addition to any wooded landscaped area, with its wire-like reddish brown-to-black stems and drooping, frilly fronds that start to grow outward in a flat whorl. Fiddleheads are pinkish/purple. Averaging 12-18 inches tall, it will thrive in…