Nature Does It Best
It would be very easy to overlook ferns right now, when everything else is bursting into life around us. But it’s at this very early stage of the season that I think ferns are at their most intriguing. If you have diligently left last year’s fronds on over winter – many a frog has been known to hibernate in their protected crowns - it’s now, as you cut them back, that the magic begins.
Nestling in the centre, the tightly coiled, downy knuckles are revealed, just waiting to unfurl: The young fronds, with their coiled, hook-shaped tips, are known as croziers or fiddleheads. From the giant tree fern to the tiniest Wall-rue, found growing in crevices in old walls and paving, this transition seems to occur before your very eyes.
There is something prehistoric about these enigmatic plants. Hardly surprising, considering that ferns are one of the earth's oldest plant groups, some 300 million years old, dominating the land long before the rise of flowering plants.
With half my garden in permanent shade, ferns are an invaluable part of the story. Overshadowed by an ancient lilac and next door’s sycamore, the back quarter is dependant upon ferns to provide textural ground cover, along with hellebores and Solomon’s Seal. The semi-evergreen cyrtomium fortunei, or Holly fern, so-called for its resemblance to holly, is an absolute must for dry shade, as are our native shield ferns, polystichum and dryopteris. I’ll let Beth Chatto give you specific details.
The shady half of the Catio is full of ferns in containers, the soil top-dressed with alpine grit to show off their fronds. Each fern has its own characteristics, with such descriptive names as the Tatting Fern, Hart’s-Tongue Fern, The Sensitive Fern and the Regal Fern. My cats love nothing more than to skulk around in the gloom, weaving in and out of the pots, looking for small mammals. They will sit stock still – you wouldn’t know they were there - for hours, like snipers, waiting for any signs of life. In the summer, when the frogs gravitate towards this cool, damp environment, many have fallen foul of the felines. Thankfully, once the frogs play dead the cats lose interest, and we briskly step in to liberate them to the pond.
Wherever you have shade, plant a fern without delay, then sit back and admire the wonder of nature. Then buy more!
Love, Caroline x