How to Grow Ferns in Your Garden
Plant ferns in part to full shade and rich, well-drained soil. In all climates, they need protection from afternoon sun to prevent drying and leaf scorch. Ferns can reach 12 inches to 6 feet tall, depending on the type and growing conditions. Most prefer rich, humus-filled soil, so make sure to mix compost into planting holes and cover them annually with 2 inches of organic mulch. Like other perennial plants, you can divide ferns in spring or fall. Keep the new divisions well-watered until plants are established. Some ferns spread by underground runners, which can be helpful in places where you want a groundcover, but unwelcome in an orderly, formal planting. Research the characteristics of each fern before you plant it.
Plants That Grow Well with Ferns
Ferns are ideal companions in a woodland garden, where they offer a texture change when planted with other perennials such as hostas, dicentras, and caladiums. Other deer-resistant companions include astilbe, hellebore, barrenwort, and heart-leaf brunnera.
Best Fern Varieties
If you want to include a few ferns in your landscape, start with these favorites. Three showy cultivars to plant in your garden are Japanese painted fern (A. niponicum pictum); Athyrium ‘Ghost’; and ‘Lady in Red’ lady fern (A. filix-femina ‘Lady in Red’). Japanese painted ferns unfurl silver fronds brushed with red and blue tints on burgundy stems. They reach 12 to 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide. The silvery foliage achieves its best color when it gets a few hours of morning sunshine. Hardy in Zones 4-9. The ‘Ghost’ variety is more upright than the Japanese painted fern but has the same silvery foliage. It reaches 1 to 3 feet tall and wide. Hardy in Zones 3-8. ‘Lady in Red’ lady fern is a cross between Japanese painted fern and Southern lady fern. It grows with a strongly vertical form, showcasing its brilliant red-violet stems and lacy, light green foliage. It reaches 20 to 24 inches tall and 3 feet wide. Hardy in Zones 3-8. Many other lady ferns make fine garden plants, each with interesting qualities, including the crested lady fern (A. filix-femina ‘Cristatum’) with frilly double edges on each leaf. Northern maidenhair fern (A. pedatum aleuticum) grows 24-inch black-purple stems topped with arching branchlets arranged like fingers on a hand. The straight species is beautiful as well as its variations, such as ‘Miss Sharples’ (light yellow-green new growth) and ‘Japonicum’ (pinkish-bronze new growth). Hardy in Zones 5-8. Southern maidenhair fern (A. capillus-venerus) is a native southerner. It thrives in heat and humidity and requires consistently moist soil. Bright green fronds grow on blackish stems 18-24 inches tall. Hardy in Zones 7-10. Cinnamon fern (O. cinnamomea) takes its name from the erect, 36-inch-tall, reddish-brown spore-bearing fronds that grow in the center of light green fronds that can reach 5 feet tall in a 24-inch-wide clump. Grow these tough deciduous beauties at the edge of ponds or in informal woodlands. Hardy in Zones 4-9. Interrupted fern (O. claytoniana) takes its common name from brown fertile leaflets that appear to interrupt green sterile leaflets on larger fronds. At 3 feet tall and 6 feet wide, this large garden presence is deciduous in the fall. Hardy in Zones 3-6. Autumn fern (D. erythrosora) opens in spring with coppery fronds, 18 inches tall and wide, that shift to green in summer, then provide rust-color in fall. Consider ‘Brilliance’ for brighter red new growth. Marginal wood fern (D. marginalis) is a native of rocky woodland slopes typically forming a vase-shape clump 18 inches tall and 2 feet wide. Hardy in Zones 3-8.
