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Ferns For The Shade Garden - Part II

© Marge Talt

If you missed Part I on ferns, or if, like me, you need a lot of repetition to have a new fact stick, the following glossary might be useful:

Fern Terms

• Caudex = The stem of a frond;
• Crozier = Young, uncoiling fern fronds, also called Fiddleheads;
• Frond = The leaf of a fern, which includes the:
• Stipe = Leaf stalk and the
• Blade = The expanded portion of a frond;
• Rhizome = Stems in the flowering plants. Fronds arise from the rhizome. Rhizomes can be inconspicuous, entirely underground or visible;
• Spores = Seeds. Ferns don't make seed, they produce spore; minute, usually unicellular, asexual reproductive bodies. These are generally, but not always, contained in a
• Sporangium = Spore case. These are most often seen as small round dots on the back of the frond blade;
• Sorus = Several sporangia grouped together are called a sorus (plural is sori);

MORE HARDY FERNS

Here are a few more hardy ferns that I grow in my USDA zone 7 garden:

Dennstaedtia punctiloba (Hay-scented Fern)

Dennstaedtia punctiloba is a beautiful fern and a real thug. It spreads rapidly in suitable conditions by means of rhizomes that are just below the soil surface. The rhizomes elongate, putting up single fronds reaching up to thirty inches (76 cm) in height and about 11 inches (27 cm) wide at their base. It is not all that hard to pull them out if you don't want them, but if you don't get all of the rhizome, they will soon be back.

Hay-scented fern is native to eastern North America and is rated hardy to USDA zone 3. This is one of the ferns that lives in our woods and just invited itself into my borders. I leave it alone unless it starts to get too pushy, when it soon finds itself on the compost heap. It is one of the few ferns I know that does very well in sun, provided the soil doesn't get too dry. It will tolerate a wide variety of conditions and is easy to grow -- too easy in some cases. But, I have to admit that in the right place, like a shady bank or dell, the finely textured, apple green fronds are lovely and stay nice all season until the first hard frost collapses them. In my garden, they sometimes turn a light gold before dying down, if the weather is just right. It is very simple to propagate them by division; just lift a few rhizomes and plant them where you want them. They can also be propagated by spore.

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