This soft yellow-green fern is found in the woods all across the Northeast and is one of those perfect plants to transform your shaded backyard into a lush woodland. Creeping roots send up lush fronds in the spring that can reach up to 24″ and 4″ wide creating a colony of green that carpets the woodland floor. The frond itself tapers at each end, distinguishing itself from the Hay-scented Fern and giving it an unusual look and texture that makes it unique. New York Fern makes a good companion for spring ephermals such as Stylophorum diphyllum and Trillium grandiflorum, covering the gaps they leave in the woodland garden when they disappear in the summer heat. New York Fern requires consistently moist soils and filtered light but will thrive in shady places where other plants have failed miserably.
Majestic, shiny, bright green fronds with interesting form and texture is ideal of mass plantings or as specimen patio container.Easily grown in rich, evenly moist, well-drained soil in shade or dappled sun. Tolerant of a wide range of soil conditions, including somewhat drier conditions than many other ferns.
Combining an aggressive growing nature and great looks, this native fern is a ‘must have’ plant for the shady areas of your landscape. Big, wide fronds rise out of the ground in the early spring, soon showing off their big, widely separated leaflets that almost give this fern the look of a plant from the pea family. While fronds usually rise a considerable 2-3′ in height they can reach 5 or 6 feet in areas with constant moisture content, giving it a size and form that allows it to lord over the surrounding shade landscape. Royal fern is deciduous with fronds turning a gold to golden brown color before disappearing in the fall. Royal is an easy care winner for any tough shade landscape and will fill in these areas with grace, charm and efficiency.
Commonly called Sensitive Fern because its green vegetative fronds are the first to show damage from frost, this woodland delight offers strongly upright vegetative fronds that are 2-4′ long and finely divided to go along with a pleasing leathery look that, in combination with their light green color, will light up a shaded area. This fern also offers contrasting fertile fronds that appear more woody in nature with unique bead-like segments that add contrasting brown color in the late summer and hold that color and structure through the winter well after the vegetative fronds have disappeared for the season. Sensitive Fern is an easy growing winner for a moist, shady area and it naturalizes well in a landscape spot that is hard fill with other selections while offering subtle color and great texture that you’ll love.
These large ferns live up to their ‘macho’ name growing up to 36″ tall and wide. It has massive, glossy leaves that arch in many directions.
Regal in its upright, vase shaped form, Ostrich Fern provides a commanding presence in the American Beauties garden. With its soft, green-gray, delicate fronds, this plant also introduces a touchability factor to a wide range of landscape locations from shade to sun. It prefers moist well-drained soil and thrives in shade but will be equally stunning in a sunny location if given a lot of moisture, like that available from a pond side or water garden side planting. Ostrich Fern almost looks like a small palm tree at times and its vase forming stems provide needed bird cover whether planted in sun or shade.
Looking for some height in your shaded woodland garden? Dixie Wood Fern is a very rare native, a naturally occurring hybrid between two Dryopteris varieties that results in a brawny, beautiful Fern that features large, dark green, semi-evergreen fronds with a strong upright habit that will add height, structure and texture to your woodland garden. Although Dixie Wood Fern is very tolerant of dry conditions, a shaded spot with plenty of moisture through the hot summer months will really keep its fronds looking their best. And about that southern sounding name…even though it implies that this Fern might not be tough enough for the northern garden, Dixie Wood Fern will thrive in the northern garden with its great hardiness and garden altering stature that few other Ferns can match.
This solid, trouble free evergreen fern is a perfect plant for shade and semi-shade areas forming a dense clump with upright, finely cut, nearly lustrous fronds and deep green color. It’s a perfect plant for grouping in the landscape to give that soft, forest floor feeling and is very drought tolerant once established. It all sounds great, but why is this plant named ‘Brilliance’?? Even with all its great virtues, the time when this plant jumps into your consciousness is when its new growth emerges such a bright reddish-orange that you’ll think the plant is spontaneously combusting! It’s an amazing show of color that will make your sedate shaded area a brilliant center of attention!
Named after its founder and developer, George William Clinton, this large fern has green fronds whose medium size will fill in empty spaces woodland garden with tall fronds growing between 2-4′. Easy to grow with little care necessary. Perfect for massing in any shady woodland garden. Adds spectacular texture to the woodland garden. Rabbit resistant. Thrives in partial to full shade. Feed yearly with an organic fertilizer. No pruning necessary, just clean up old, damaged fronds before spring flush. Protect from winter winds.
This native beauty stands out with long, fertile fronds held upright with thin, narrow leaflets above a mounding mat of sterile, horizontal growing fronds giving this fern a substantial yet finer textured presence in a shaded or wooded area. This selection is primed to prosper in moist, acidic soils and with minimum care and to look beautiful en masse with its great texture, long, swaying fronds and deep green color.