I love Wood Fern! It's so easy to grow and although it requires daily light watering during the hottest of Summer...it'll reward you with HUGE showy fronds that for me define Mother Nature at her ethereal best!
My care tips: Plant in the Spring or Fall where the Wood Fern will get gentle early morning sun. Avoid any hot direct sunlight especially during Summer. Plan on daily light watering from Spring through Fall so as to avoid dry soil around the ferns. I cut mine back to the ground after the first freeze and scatter the mulched fronds back over the garden bed. When Spring first starts to tease us with warm days this hearty Wood Fern is not fooled...it'll wait until the day time temperatures reach a consistent 75 degrees to 80 degrees...then it starts to show it curved loopy baby fern fronds!
Now, with all that moisture in the fern beds you're probably wondering...MOSQUITOES? Well, they used to be a problem...so I got some tablets from a local nursery, it's all green and I'd plop them into the beds and there were few mosquitoes but they were still an issue. So what changed? For about 5 years we've had a colony of lizards that nest in the fern beds....and no Mosquitoes and even with our porch light....no telltale flying bugs...the lizards come out at night, eat every bug and we live in perfect harmony!
Well there was one exception, last year a baby lizard (about 1 1/2 inches long) made it's way into our home....to our bathroom...I'm dressing for bed after a shower...I feel something inside my gown...AHHHHHHHH! Yep, the baby lizard...Mr. B helped me and then he released it to the front porch again...we still laugh about that one...we don't know who was more scared...the baby lizard probably...but boy did I do a fast 2 step....well maybe a fast 1,000 steps!
So Victorian ...
ReplyDeleteFerns..they had them everywhere in their gardens, homes, and in their Conservatory's....it was wonderful.
WE had a small conservatory in my childhood home.. we called it the "hot house"...it was for your plants in the summer and winter...had LOTS of windows...very Victorian too.
SO FUNNY..I would have been right there with you doing that lizard dance...I think they are cute...but not ON my body !!!
Rose
Wow Sandy, those first two pictures are awesome, so bright! Me too, I like watching nature awakening. The bulbs will soon bloom... sigh... Spring is finally here!
ReplyDeleteWishing you a happy Monday and a wonderful new week.
XOXOX
Hi Sandy! Thanks so much for stopping by my place, designing dna, and joining us for our vacation cruise! Your images of the ferns are fantastic! I love ferns!
ReplyDeleteC
PS: I'm your newest follower!
Sandy,
ReplyDeleteJust in LOVE with your wood ferns. So much so, that you will find me at Lowe's on Grapevine Hwy. today buying some! LOL Thanks for the great advice too. We are inundated with lizards around here. My kids love them, they drive me nuts! I would love to press one of the ferns curled up & use it in a collage. Beautiful. Hope you had a great weekend. I was in your area Saturday. Went to the resale store on Rufe Snow by Big Lots, can't recall the name. They had LOTS of goodies! Do you go there? Lisa
Sandy,
ReplyDeleteI am supposed to be making dinner, but just one more blog!!! I had a beautiful wood fern. In a pot. Not smart out here. Somehow it survived, but in the summer not so much!!! I dumped it out and put in a succulent!!
I have a blog post about a blue-belly lizard my lovely dogs left for me to find in my living room. Thank goodness it wasn't in my night gown. YIKES.
lynn
I'm laughing... seriously - rolling!!! That lizard just wanted to be tucked in for the night! LOLOL
ReplyDeleteI'm moving in to your garden.
;-) robelyn