Clearing Woods - Ferns and Other Forbs - Part 1
It will, when established, put up with the incredibly dry soil in my USDA zone 7 woods, although, like all ferns, it prefers a nice, organic, moist soil in light to part shade. It will grow in pretty deep shade and take a fair amount of sun. Heat and humidity don't seem to faze it and it's not bothered by pests or diseases in my climate. It is moderate in rate of growth. From self-sown spore to a decent clump takes about four years. Fronds spring from a central, slowly expanding crown. Mature clumps become about eighteen by twenty-four inches in diameter and height (45 - 60 cm).
Propagation is by spring division or spore. I have dug and moved this fern in summer and fall. Summer is not ideal, because of the hot, dry conditions that generally prevail here then, but if you get a good rootball and make sure to keep the plant watered, they will do just fine. Spring is best to dig and move, preferably before the croziers start to unfurl as they and the fronds are brittle and break easily.
While they flourish under ideal conditions, the will grow in much less and survive in adversity. Last winter, I found two sad clumps who had been growing at the base of a huge tree that had fallen. When the tree fell, the ferns were carried up with the tree's rootball and left hanging high and dry. One of them was still green and the other mostly dried and brown. I brought both back to the house and potted them up. The green one recovered quickly and was planted in the garden last spring. I didn't think the dried specimen would make it, but kept watering the pot. Amazingly, it started to recover and put out fronds by late summer. Still in its pot, in the greenhouse, it is small in stature, but alive and well. Tough plants!
Hay-scented Fern
Dennstaedtia punctilobula is a lovely thug when it's situated to its satisfaction. The stand in the photo is in one of my borders, where it overshadows Pachysandra terminalis all summer. The pachysandra does not seem to mind, since it will grow in the dark, so I allow the fern to romp, pulling up fronds that become a danger to other plants in that area.
In my woodland, I find it in odd patches, sometimes in company with other ferns and sometimes
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