Why I Oughta...

I've made it clear that Autumn Ferns are near the top of my list for favorite perennial in the garden.   Having fallen in love with ferns via the Ostrich Fern, I've come to understand that there are other varieties that perform better - at least for me.  When I talk about performance, I'm talking about full, four-season interest.  Ostrich Ferns - which...naturalize....look great for a season-and-a-half.  They're great in Spring and most of Summer, but they begin to brown out in the heat of August.   Autumn Ferns put on a show all year long - and are....semi-evergreen.   I've been on a multi-year journey that I call my 'hosta replacement' program - that includes upgrading some of our borers from being hosta-centric to include other, more-preferred plants like Hakonechloa Macra grasse and....Autumn Ferns. At Menards, I found a pair of Autumn Ferns for just $3.99 each.  They were in quart-sized containers and were hanging-on (as stuff does...

I've failed to post the installation of much of what we brought home from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale this year.  I posted this 'highlights' of the sale post at the beginning of May, between then and now, I've planted a number of things that we bought at the sale.  The first set of plants are these three Godzilla Japanese Painted Ferns.   Athyrium 'Godzilla' Ferns.   Here's the sign from the sale that describes this fern as having 'epic proportions'.  How epic?  It says it can spread between four-and-six-feet.  That's B I G.    Also...note the 'rabbit resistant' listing on the sign.  I'm all for that feature in EVERYTHING we plant. I bought three of them and they looked good in their nursery containers: In the back, on the southside, I have three " Crested Surf" ferns that were planted in/around a Japanese Flowering Cherry Tree.  That tree...died, but the Crested Surf Japanese Painted Ferns - after getting e...

After finding a falling for a new (to me...at the time) fern, I planted three Crested Surf Japanese Painted ferns in the backyard in 2021 .   They had a hard-time getting established, so I wasn't sure if they were coming back those first few seasons.  Now...in their fifth season, I'm seeing them push through the thick mulch layer with fronds unfurling in early May.    See below for the three Crested Surf ferns that are planted in a triangle: Similar to other things, I'm thinking that I planted these too far apart.  These, too, should be [candidates for dividing] this Fall.  

First came the Ostrich Fern.  Then, I realized there were BETTER ferns that I could grow in my garden.  The one that I seem to be drawn to most?  The Autumn Brilliance Fern .  I planted three to start and then each Fall, I've added more small ones.  Unfortunately...most of them don't over winter that first year, so I end up having far fewer than I start the Fall with in the backyard. But, where do we stand today - late Spring - in terms of Autumn Ferns? First...the three originals - they're all here today.  And looking mighty fine in their Springtime splendor: In the Fall of 2022, I planted 12 (yes...twelve) small Autumn Ferns.  I thought ALL of them died, but turns out that four remain - all in front of the Hicks Yew Hedge in the back.  Two photos below show two apiece.  These are, well....small.  But they get very little supplemental water back there. That makes seven so far.   Last Fall, I planted five more quart-sized Autum...

Last Fall, I tentatively stepped into the Ghost Ferns Dividing Business.  I had four original plants to start when I lifted one in the Fall of 2022 and created five Ghost Ferns.  I took a look at the five - the two divided segments returned this year - in Spring .  With that success under my belt, I took on dividing the rest of them. From five ferns, I now have eight ferns.   I left the two that resulted from 2022 divisions intact.  And divided up the remaining three - to create three new ferns.   Below is the 'after' showing seven Ghost Ferns in this section including one *behind* the Weeping Nootka Cypress tree.  Seven, you say?  Where's the last one?  I put it on the side of the house lining the new Boardwalk: Below are a few in-process Ghost Fern dividing photos: More Ghost Ferns is on my 2024 agenda.  Fern upgrade in process. I'm posting this in November 2023, but I did this dividing and transplanting in mid-October 2023.

Last Fall, I divided two Shaggy Shield Ferns into four clumps and transplanted them to the edge of the border with the hopes that they'd take the spot of some (fallen-out-of-favor) Ostrich Ferns that I had in this bed.  I planted them in a row and then attempted to water them in all Fall.   Earlier this Spring, I stuck six (6) Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the same bed both in-front-of and behind the locations of the Shaggy Shield Ferns .  At that time....(Late May), I thought that I had lost ALL of the divided ferns as none of them had thrown up new growth.    They all appeared dead.  A setback when it comes to dividing ferns.   Fast forward to today.  I was puttering around and realized that SOME of those Fall 2022 Shaggy Shield Divided ferns had made it.  I had two ferns last Summer, divided to make four small ferns.  Today...I'm back up to three Shaggy Shield Ferns.  See below for a photo showing the Shaggy Shields ...

The three Autumn Ferns that have changed everything I think about ferns in the garden are at their peak pre-color-change right now - mid-September.   They are full, lush and alive with fronds the reach up and out and curl ever-so-slightly in this shade bed.   Photo of the 'original three' below: Last Fall, I planted a number of small Autumn Ferns, but it appears that just six of them came back and made it this year .   There are a couple of plants that I'm going to seek out at the big box store end-of-season sales:  These Autumn Ferns and Ajuga Chocolate Chip for groundcover .

Number 10 on my 2023 to-do list was to keep going on my 'fern upgrade' project.  That means that I need to say 'so long' (not goodbye) to my first fern love - the ostrich fern.  And begin to replace them with better performers.    I've written a few times about ferns that 'look good' after a full, not Summer and documented all of the various ferns in our garden in September .  At that time the Ostrich Ferns look tired and burned out.  The Autumn and Japanese Painted ferns do NOT.  Then, there's Winter - when the Autumn Ferns stick around and add some visuals to the mostly barren garden .   So, replacing Ostrich Ferns with other ferns is something that I've been trying to do - both through divisions as well as new additions.  When I planted the Inaba shadire Japanese Maple, I removed six Ostrich Fern clumps and put them in the far back.  I planted the tree a step-back from the border, allowing for a little planting near the edge of ...

Late last Fall, I went on a Home Depot end-of-season-plant-sale binge and bought a number of very small Autumn Ferns and planted them in a few spots in the backyard.   I planted twelve of them in three different spots including a number of them in the far back, right in front of the Hicks Yew hedge. How many are left back there?  Certainly not all of them.  Based on this layout, I'm thinking that I planted ten-to-twelve in a staggered layout.  Today, there are six that have survived Winter, Spring and thus far into Summer.  One is decent sized, the rest are BABIES.  In the photo below, you can see the six survivors in the orange circles. One of the things that I learned this Spring is that I have to be more careful with late season watering.  I fear that I disrupted the roots and exposed them to the winter elements.   I'm thinking that if I nurse these six to the end of the year, they'll turn into something more signficant next growing ...

This Fall, I made a pretty big change in my fern thinking.  I've long talked about how shade gardening is where I find my joy and how hostas and ferns have emerged as my favorite plants in the garden.  And, my first love with ferns was the Ostrich Fern.   I inherited some Ostrich Ferns back in Elmhurst and -for the first time - had success with ferns.  They grew, stood up and even multiplied.  I shared them with my mother-in-law and she grew them in her shade garden successfully.  And, I fostered some of them over there, too .  I even brought some to our house in Downers Grove - including collecting some from my sister-in-laws's teardown garden .   Over the years, I've moved them around and have transplanted them in some spots - including under the tree swing tree and on the side of our house .  I've historically tried to use them *AS MUCH AS I COULD*.   But, then...the change I mentioned above happened.  I started n...

Yesterday, I posted about the 22 new hostas that I (now) have in the garden thanks to the magic of perennial plant Fall dividing.  I also went about dividing some other plants in the garden:  Shaggy Shield and Japanese Painted Ghost Ferns. First up, the Shaggy Shield Ferns.  I should have included these in my recent ' ferns that still look good ' post, but I missed them.   I p lanted these two - along with a pair of Tassel Ferns - in May of 2021 .  A year-and-a-half later they're doing really well.  Grew up and out.  Below is a photo showing how big and proud these two ferns were pre-dividing. They are a thicket of fronds. Because I didn't love where they were located (kind of hidden), I decided to dig them both up.  I also dug up a handful of Ostrich Ferns and relocated them back around the tree swing tree.   Below is what one of the Shaggy Shield Ferns looked like including the root clump.  (I wired up the fronds to keep the...

Yesterday, I posted some photos of a six new (but small) Autumn Ferns that I planted in our backyard as part of my Fall planting program .  In that post, I talked about how I've been really impressed with the first three Autumn Ferns that I planted in 2021 and knew I wanted to add even more.  I've long expressed my strong relationship with perennial ferns and how they're my favorite plant in the garden.  That love of ferns started with Ostrich Ferns, but of late, has shifted away from them as I've found new, better, more interesting shade garden partners.  And ones that don't deteriorate in August and September .   One of my 2022 to-do list items was to plant more four-season plants (#2) and Autumn Ferns were (at least last year) showing up strong deep into the Winter.  As of yesterday, I had nine Autumn Ferns planted - 3 in 2021 and now six in 2022.  But, I was back at the Orange Big Box store and I found even more of the 50% off Autumn Ferns - ...

Last week, I shared the sweet deal I found at the Orange Big Box nursery on six small Autumn Ferns and talked about how they are/were on my plant 'want list' because of how well they've performed in our backyard the past two growing seasons.  The three that I have are standouts and are what I'd call semi-evergreen as they last WELL PAST the first frost.  That four-season aspect is a big part of what I'm drawn to with the Autumn Fern.  And... the fact that it doesn't look ratty after the long, hot Summer . One of the aspects of our garden that I've continued to work on is the notion of repetition.  Garden design that works (for me), very often includes a repeating set of plants in different locations to help pull the whole thing together.  I have started on my repetition journey with Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses and Hicks Yews.  I'd like to keep adding Autumn Ferns in different spots to begin to show a repeated glimpse of these four-season ferns....

I've long talked about how my favorite garden plant family are ferns.  Hostas are a close second.  Why?  Because my Mom was a shade gardener who toiled in her garden over the years with hostas .  Our backyard is mostly shade, so like my mother...I, too, am a shade gardener.  That means finding things that work well in shade and/or part shade.  That has lead me to lists like this that talk about various things that work well in shade like heucheras , lungwort and...of course ferns and hostas.  Over the years, I've planted various ferns in our gardens, but my first fern love was the Ostrich Fern .  I've had them in our garden in Elmhurst, brought a couple to my sister & Equation Boy's house (when we lived there) and have them here in Downers .  And, while they're really great ferns, they start to look a little ragged as the growing season goes on.  But, on a recent walk around the garden, I've noticed that a couple of varieties of fer...

Back at the end of February, I started to explore how to mount Staghorn Ferns to boards and even gave a few away as gifts.  I ended up keeping a few for myself and I wanted to put in an entry in the Staghorn Diary on the current state.  Below, you can see a photo of the one, larger Staghorn that is mounted to a flat board: Notably....it is NOT happy.  It is NOT thriving.  But, it is alive.  And has survived a battle with MOLD and moisture.  It has lost fronds.  Most of the tips have browned-up and curled.  But...we might have turned a corner.  We *might* have new growth emerging.  I dreamed of a life of Staghorn Ferns in our screened porch.  And this first year?  It has been rough. The interesting part is that the Staghorn that I gave my Mom?  It is thriving.  She has it laying on its back in a sunny, Western-exposure window.   I had a second, mounted fern (tiny) that has totally died.  I'm now left wit...

Just like yesterday's post showing the mid-Summer view of the three Waterslide hostas in our garden, I wanted to do a similar mid-Summer checkin on the three Crested Surf Japanese Painted Ferns back in a similar spot.  The last time I showed these was back in May when I was happy (and surprised) that all three of these came back for their second growing season .  How are they doing mid-Summer?  Pretty good, I think.  All three are green and doing well.  They're a little delicate and seem to be pretty needy (for now) in terms of water, but they've all put on growth and are filling in together. See below for the Crested Surf ferns with a hosta planted in the middle: I'm not sure the hosta belongs there, but for now...I'll leave it.   These are unique hostas (for me), so I'll keep a close eye on them as they continue to establish themselves.  I'm thinking that if we can get through this full growing season (year two), they'll be more hardy going forw...

Last Summer, one of my big-box-nursery white whales was the Crested Surf Japanese Painted Fern.  I saw them a few times, but always wanted to wait until they went on sale.  Then they started to disappear from the shelves and I figured it wasn't meant to be for our garden.  Right after the 4th of July, I found three of them on sale and decided to plant them in the little Japanese garden-inspired section on the south side of our backyard .  Two of them seemed to be fine, but one suffered.  I watered them and watered them.  And they still went into decline.  That first year is always tough.  I figured I lost one or two of them.   And, so imagine my delight when Spring comes around and all three of them have fronds that begin to unfurl.  You can see them in the photo below, planted in a triangular shape around a hosta: I really like these double-tipped ferns, so my plan is to give them as much water as they need this Spring/Summer....

Last Spring, I planted two pairs of new (to me) ferns in a little bed:  Two Shaggy Shield Ferns and two Tassel Ferns .  This post is looking at the Tassel Ferns.  They're different than what I have in other spots - Ostrich and Autumn Ferns - in a couple of ways:  they emerge a little different in that they don't unfurl the same way AND....they don't shed all their prior season foliage.   They're also - seemingly - this season the FIRST of the ferns to way up. See below for a photo of the tassels that have emerged along with last season's foliage that is still in place: The 'tassels' that you see in the photo are the reason for the fern's name.  They're quite lovely and a welcome sign of Spring in the yard.  The photo also is a reminder that I have a bunch of turf removal in the beds to continue to explore as well as finishing up the Spring cleanup to remove the dead foliage and the Oak leaves that are laying about.   The other ferns in t...

I've now put together my fourth Staghorn Fern that is mounted on a board.  But, just the second one that I've kept for myself; the first one being the tiny one I posted about last week . I gave the first two away as gifts, but after those initial mountings, I had three Staghorn Ferns in containers that I needed to do something with.  So, I got busy mounting another, large one. This is the third of four of the good-sized plants that I bought at Home Depot in February .   I mounted this one - just like the other ones - on a board with a Sphagnum Moss base and 'volcano' using some fishing wire and drywall screws.  The board has a knot hole on it, so I mounted this one a little lower so you can *see* the hole in the mounting board.  Here, below, is the new fern mounted and hung on the wall in my office. Here, below, is a profile shot showing how far the Staghorn Fern sticks out from the board.  One of the things that I've been thinking about is adding a so...