Lady Fern
Athyrium filix-femina
Provided for consumer information—Monrovia is not currently growing this plant.
Unusual red hue on new fiddleheads adds interest to light green foliage. Low growth and spreading tendency fills gaps between shrubs and under trees. Plant in mass in a woodland setting. Adapts well to pots and small landscapes. Herbaceous.
| Botanical Pronunciation: | a-THI-ree-um FI-liks FAY-mi-na |
| Key feature: | Woodland Garden |
| Plant type: | Fern |
| Garden styles: | Asian/Zen, Contemporary |
| Deciduous/evergreen: | Herbaceous |
| Cold hardiness zones: | 3 - 9 |
| Light needs: | Full to partial shade |
| Sunset climate zones: | 1 - 9, 14 - 24, 31 - 43 |
| Water Needs: | Needs wet or constantly moist soil. |
| Average landscape size: | Fast growing to 2 or 3 ft. tall. 2 ft. wide. |
| Growth rate: | Fast |
| Special features: | Deer Resistant, North American Native Selection, Waterwise |
| Landscape uses: | Mass Planting, Seacoast Exposure, Water Garden, Woodland Garden |
| Blooms: | Inconspicuous |
| Foliage color: | Light Green |
| Item no.: | 0502 |
| Retailers for this plant: |
Care Information
Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Feed frequently during growing season with a general purpose fertilizer. Cut back old fronds after new growth begins in spring.
Design Ideas
This is a lovely fern for residential gardens. Add to foundation planting on sheltered exposures and include in sideyard planting to give this pass-through space a lush groundplane. Exceptional choice for nestling landscape boulders or adding green foliage around the edges of shaded water gardens and rock waterfalls where plants thrive in over-splash moisture. Perfect for covering ground beneath shade trees and groves both deciduous and thrives in acidic conditions under needled evergreens. An important wild garden components of forest and woodland ecosystems.
Companion Plants
This fern thrives with other allies that lover sheltered woodland conditions such as Stop Light Foamy Bells, (x Heucherella 'Stop Light'), King of Hearts Bleeding Heart, (Dicentra x 'King of Hearts'), Ebony Knight Mondo Grass, (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Ebkinzam') and Spotted Dead Nettle, (Lamium maculatum 'Red Nancy').
History
This fern was classified by the German, Albrecht Roth, who chose this genus to contain about 25 species. There is a great deal of confusion between these and ferns of genus Asplenium due to only scant variations in morphology. This species is of vast distribution, found around the world in the Northern Hemisphere. Ferns are unusually primitive, reproducing by spores carried in sori arranged on the undersides of the leaves.
Lore
The fact that ferns are not seed bearing caused the early Celts and other tribes to believe them magical plants, reproducing invisibly and thus capable of rendering invisibility to those who conjured them.
Unusual red hue on new fiddleheads adds interest to light green foliage. Low growth and spreading tendency fills gaps between shrubs and under trees. Plant in mass in a woodland setting. Adapts well to pots and small landscapes. Herbaceous.
Care Information
Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Feed frequently during growing season with a general purpose fertilizer. Cut back old fronds after new growth begins in spring.
Design Ideas
This is a lovely fern for residential gardens. Add to foundation planting on sheltered exposures and include in sideyard planting to give this pass-through space a lush groundplane. Exceptional choice for nestling landscape boulders or adding green foliage around the edges of shaded water gardens and rock waterfalls where plants thrive in over-splash moisture. Perfect for covering ground beneath shade trees and groves both deciduous and thrives in acidic conditions under needled evergreens. An important wild garden components of forest and woodland ecosystems.
Companion Plants
This fern thrives with other allies that lover sheltered woodland conditions such as Stop Light Foamy Bells, (x Heucherella 'Stop Light'), King of Hearts Bleeding Heart, (Dicentra x 'King of Hearts'), Ebony Knight Mondo Grass, (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Ebkinzam') and Spotted Dead Nettle, (Lamium maculatum 'Red Nancy').
History
This fern was classified by the German, Albrecht Roth, who chose this genus to contain about 25 species. There is a great deal of confusion between these and ferns of genus Asplenium due to only scant variations in morphology. This species is of vast distribution, found around the world in the Northern Hemisphere. Ferns are unusually primitive, reproducing by spores carried in sori arranged on the undersides of the leaves.
Lore
The fact that ferns are not seed bearing caused the early Celts and other tribes to believe them magical plants, reproducing invisibly and thus capable of rendering invisibility to those who conjured them.
| Botanical Pronunciation: | a-THI-ree-um FI-liks FAY-mi-na |
| Key feature: | Woodland Garden |
| Plant type: | Fern |
| Garden styles: | Asian/Zen, Contemporary |
| Deciduous/evergreen: | Herbaceous |
| Cold hardiness zones: | 3 - 9 |
| Light needs: | Full to partial shade |
| Sunset climate zones: | 1 - 9, 14 - 24, 31 - 43 |
| Water Needs: | Needs wet or constantly moist soil. |
| Average landscape size: | Fast growing to 2 or 3 ft. tall. 2 ft. wide. |
| Growth rate: | Fast |
| Special features: | Deer Resistant, North American Native Selection, Waterwise |
| Landscape uses: | Mass Planting, Seacoast Exposure, Water Garden, Woodland Garden |
| Blooms: | Inconspicuous |
| Foliage color: | Light Green |
| Item no.: | 0502 |
