FERNS IN WINTER

Although most things, if not all things, in my garden on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire go dormant during the winter months, the evergreens still retain their greenery.  I love ferns and have quite a few, and I would say that most of them are deciduous, like the Wood Fern, Thelypteris decursive pinnata.  My Dryopteris filix-mas 'Euchinensis' also dies back, although I don't remove the dead growth but, instead, leave it to protect the crown of the plant until spring when the new fronds begin to unfurl. I do that with a lot of my garden plants.   Polypodium vulgare is evergreen and also my Buckler Fern (Dryopteris atrata) which have retained their green fronds.

Evergreen fern in winter, Jan 2018

The Holly Fern, Cyrtomium fortunei, which I grow in a container, is quite evergreen each year although I give it a bit of protection by placing the pot against the east facing house wall and right next to the outside drain where the warm water from the kitchen sink flows.




Other ferns die right back and I get a little concerned about the ones that don't look quite so robust (perhaps it's because they are still quite young, I don't know), like the Athyrium otophorum Okanum (Auriculate Lady Fern), the Athyrium niponicum (Japanese Painted Fern) 'Red Beauty', Athyrium felix-femina Frizelliae  and Victoria Lady Fern (Athyrium filix femina Victoriae).  I grow these in pots and, like the Holly Fern, shove them together against the house wall.  I just hope they all survive this miserable winter.  Roll on spring!



Polypodium vulgare in summer