Growing Fern Plants

When you think of fern plants, the first thing that comes to your mind is their long attractive leaves. Fern plants are interesting for many reasons. They can thrive in the shaded areas to great heights, texture and color. Ferns flourish better in a woodland garden that requires at least partial shade. When grown in a sunny garden, they will require protection from the hot afternoon sun. 

Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If your have a large maple or an oak tree in your yard, the fern plant would be one of the best shade-loving plants you will want to include. There are different types of fern plants that can be grown indoors as well as outdoors. The indoor fern plants might need a little bit of more watering while the outdoor fern plants can thrive well in predominantly shady lawn and garden areas.

Ferns are among the few species of non-flowering plants. They reproduce by means of the spores that found underneath their leaves. Ferns come in different shapes and sizes. Their height can range from a few inches to as much as 6 feet tall.

Some of the popular types of fern plants are Lady Fern, Cinnamon Fern, Maidenhair and Japanese Painted Fern. Two unusual ferns are the arborvitae fern, which really isn't a fern, and the true ostrich fern, which produces edible fiddleheads.

Popular evergreen ferns are the Autumn Brilliance and Christmas Ferns.

Generally, ferns prefer soils with more moisture content but not too watery. Some types of ferns will freeze during the winter. It is important that you choose your fern based on two things: the climate in your area and the type of landscape (shaded or sunny).

Tips for outdoor ferns:

One important thing you need to know is that over exposure to sunlight might dry out the ferns. Therefore, it is best to plant the fern plants in the shady areas of your garden. Let the place be mildly shady but not completely shaded. Ideal shades would be those from the tall trees creating a woodland feel with filtered light. Ferns like maidenhair grow well in dappled shade.

Test the quality of the soil before planting the ferns. They generally prefer soil that is more acidic than alkaline. If your soil is alkaline then you might have to get some fresh soil that is more acidic and plant your ferns in it. A suitable soil can be prepared by adding peat moss and sand in the ratio of 3:1 and mixing it up with the fresh soil.

Planting the ferns is simple. Just dig a hole that is more or less the same size of the fern pot and plant the fern in the hole so that the plant sits just above (approximately 1 to 2 inches) the ground level.

Ensure that the soil has good amount of moisture content but continually damp or wet. At times when there is heavy rainfall or excess humidity, see to that the moisture content doesn’t change drastically. The best way to combat such extreme climatic conditions is to bring the ferns indoors. If they are maintained at a temperature of not more than 60 degrees then they will maintain the moisture content that is required for their growth. What if the temperature is on the lower positive range? In such cases, you might allow the ferns to freeze temporarily. Once the climate gets back to normal, add more organic manure to the soil and replant them back in the outdoors.

Fern Plants are strong hardy plants and a beautiful addition to any partial to shaded garden.

Using Shade Garden Plants for Your Landscape

A shade garden can be a great place of relaxation and serenity. Sitting under the shade, you can do a lot of restful activities without sweating under the sun. Just sit under the shade and enjoy the beauty of the nature, read books, or have casual talks with family members. The uniqueness of the shade garden plants is that they flourish well in areas frequented by limited natural light. The decreased light may be of a morning sun, gloomy sun, or filtered sun. 

These plants require moist soil that is rich in organic matter to grow well. Ideal places to grow the shade-loving plants would be the areas where there is blocked light from tall buildings or in areas receiving diminished light due to tall trees in the surrounding area. When compared to the sun garden plants, the shade loving plants bloom well even with little care and water. They are also easy to maintain.

There are certain varieties of shade garden plants that grow for more than three years under mottled or full-shaded areas. The good thing is, as these plants flourish in the shades of the neighboring trees, they are well protected from the damage or breakage during the extreme temperatures of summer and winter. A perfect shade garden would be the one that has a blend of bright colors, arousing fragrance, nice foliage, and pervasive combination of heucheras.

Shade garden, coming along - 21 June 2012 (Photo credit: mmwm)

Color 

By planting a cluster of perennial shade-growing plants in your garden, you can witness a steady presence of colors in your shade garden. Azalea is a colorful shade-flourishing plant that bears brightly colored flowers during the spring. The astilbe bears flowers with varying colors- red, pink, purple and white. It blooms a variety of such colors predominantly in the June and July. Bee balm is an attractive shade garden plant that bears white and red fragrant flowers starting in mid summer and lasting till the end of fall. This means, you can sit back and have an extended garden season on your landscape.

Fragrance

Two shade garden plants, the daylily and hydrangeas are well known for their fragrances. The flowers of daylily live for only a day but produces magical fragrance. Hydrangeas have green foliage and naturally scented flowers. Hydrangea blooms will vary in color according to variety selected and the pH of your soil. White blooming hydrangeas are not affected by the soil’s pH.

Foliage

Add foliage to your shade garden with an assortment of ferns. Large growing ferns such as the royal and ostrich ferns make excellent backdrop plants while the delicate lady and maidenhair ferns mix well with other plants such as hostas. Variegated hosta varieties like the patriot, revolution and Francee brighten up dark shaded garden areas.

Heuchera

A shade plant garden would certainly look incomplete without the vibrant foliage of the many evergreen heuchera varieties. The leaves can be seen in various hues- green, pink, purple and many more. Grow the North American native Heuchera plant in the shade landscape; this colorful plant won’t fail to grab the attention of any visitor that visits your shade garden.

Create Habitats for Butterflies and Hummingbirds with Butterfly Bushes

Growing butterfly bushes is a popular hobby for many Americans? The enchanting colors of buddleia flowers, the bracing fragrance of the leaves, the hypnotic effect of the stems swaying back and forth, the sight of the trees rattling their leaves when touched by the gentle breeze, and of course, the green background of the landscape - all contribute to the uniqueness of a scenic butterfly garden. Hey wait a minute; is something missing? Yes, the butterflies!

English: Photograph of a Monarch Butterfly. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Who doesn’t like to see a rabble of butterflies fluttering in the garden? Watching those colorful butterflies flit from one plant to another and circling in rabbles can be a great stress-relieving site for anyone. If your garden is without the butterflies then you might consider making it colorfully attractive by planting butterfly bushes.

Also referred to as summer lilac or buddleia, butterfly bushes are attractive flowering shrubs that can embellish the look of any garden. They grow fast, filling the neighboring space in quick time. And they flourish well in any type of well-drained soil; regardless of it is gravel, clay or sandy type. The butterfly bushes are flowering plants that provide a welcoming habitat for the butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterflies and bees love to feed on the nectar-rich flowers. One good thing about the butterfly bushes is that they don’t drop dead flowers.

Butterfly Bush Planting Tips

There are different butterfly bushes that thrive well in different climatic conditions. They generally spread quickly; hence should be planted at a distance of at least 6 feet away from each other, depending on the specific variety. The butterfly bushes grow at heights ranging from 5 to 15 feet, although some of the newer hybrids are small growing at 3 feet. Typically, they need at least six hours of direct exposure to sunlight everyday and should be watered regularly.

Maintenance and Variety

Butterfly bushes require regular trimming as they can grow fast in quick time. For best growth results, constant pruning of the dead petals should be done; this will make them bloom longer and grow denser. The ideal time for pruning is from July till the tail end of winter. There are over 100 varieties of butterfly bushes in the world. The flowering plants of butterfly bushes come in multiple colors ranging from red and blue to pink and purple to white and yellow and lots more. As a warning, do not use insecticides on your butterfly bushes as they can kill the butterfly larvae or sometimes even the butterflies.

Best Butterfly Habitats

Having butterfly bushes to attract the butterflies and humming birds is a great idea. But it would be wiser to think out of the box and create a friendly habitat for the butterflies. One such idea is to incorporate a few flat rocks in the surrounding area where the butterflies can enjoy and bask in the sun. Also, butterflies need some place to cool off. You can provide a relaxing habitat by including small muddy patches in your garden.

Butterfly bushes are available in a large variety of single colors- purple, orange, blue, red, pink etc. They are also available as bi-colored plants. A great selection of butterfly plants is available in smaller container sizes that are easiy affordable from Greenwood Nursery.

Check out ourInstant Butterfly Garden Plant Package that includes a butterfly house, too!

The Best 8 Flowering Shrubs

My selection of the Best 8 Flowering Shrubs:     

Hydrangea macrophylla - Hortensia hydrangea, picture from Longwood Gardens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. The Fairy Rose
2. Pink Velour Crape Myrtle
3. Bloomerang Reblooming Lilac
4. Knockout Double Pink Rose
5. Nishiki Dappled Willow
6. Nikko Blue Hydrangea
7. Spilled Wine Weigela
8. Pinky Winky Hydrangea

These flowering plants were chosen for their blooming length as well as the other special qualities that they bring to the garden. Check out our other flowering plants.