Clearing Woods - Ferns and Other Forbs - Part 1
This is not a fern to introduce into a border of prized perennials, but if you have an area of moist, well-drained, acidic soil in part shade (or sun in northern climes) in USDA zones 3 to 8, that needs a care-free groundcover, this is the fern for you. It will grow in less than ideal conditions, but I have found that it really does want a soil that remains moist. Too dry a location will eventually kill it off. Where it's happy, it will cover ground fairly rapidly. If conditions are not ideal, it will tolerate them, but not spread as much nor become as tall and lush. It can get two or three feet tall (0.6 - 0.9 m). Apple green feathery, somewhat sticky, fronds, tapering to a point from their one to two feet wide (0.3 - 0.6 m) bases, spring, seemingly randomly, from black rhizomes only a few inches below the soil.
Hay-scented fern, a member of the family Dennstaedtiaceae, gets its common name because the fronds, when bruised, smell sort of like fresh mown hay.
Named for the eighteenth century German botanist, August Wilhelm Deenstedt, hay-scented fern is native to eastern North America; one of a small genus of creeping ferns scattered throughout the temperate areas of the world except Europe. There are no cultivars in existence. Propagation is by spring division of the rhizomatous mats or spore. I have tried dividing at other times of the year with little success. You really need to do this before the fronds break.
Lady Fern
Athyrium filix-femina (at least I'm 99.9% sure it's this one) appears in a few isolated patches as well as in one or two large groups of mixed ferns in my woodland. The photo is of a group I dug and moved to a garden bed more than twenty years ago.
Rated hardy from USDA zones 2 to 9, lady fern fronds can reach two to five feet in length (0.6 - 1.5 m) by one or two feet in width (0.3 - 0.6 m) at the base.
The frond stalks or stipes can be tan, reddish or brownish. The group pictured have a dark brownish red stipe that's very fragile; once knocked over or bent, it will never stand upright again.
They have a moderate growth rate, spreading from stout,
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