Wednesday 6 June 2012

My favourite Fern

You may remember that I wrote about Ferns in general a couple of weeks ago, and in that post I made a brief reference to the one called Dryopteris Erythrosora, which is definitely my favourite. At this time of the year it is putting up spectacular new fronds, which have for me a peculiar fascination. They grow rapidly and change their appearance more or less on a daily basis.


A few days ago, whilst I was reorganising all my potted plants I saw that my special fern was in need of a bit of smartening-up.


 I removed the last few remaining brown and shrivelled fronds from last year to make space for the great mass of new fronds that is emerging.









There must be at least 25 new fronds on the plant already, and I know that more are likely to appear later in the Summer.


These new fronds change colour from matt reddish-brown, to glossy bronze and then to muted green as they mature.










One of the good things about ferns is that they need very little maintenance. Just put them in the right location and let them carry on, trimming off any excessively ragged fronds from time to time. The Dryopteris Erythrosora is said to dislike full sun, especially in the middle of the day, but I suspect that our conditions here in the UK would not present too many problems for it in that respect!

I'm bound to be posting more photos of this one later on!

15 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Beautiful fern with, as the name says, copper red sori and fronds. I love it. Ferns are among my favourite plants.

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  3. he is UGLY when he's furled up... but so pretty when he's all grown up... just like the swan!

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  4. I feel tempted by the idea of collecting ferns. Bought one - didn't realise it was an indoor one. It lasted the summer by died as soon as the weather grew colder.

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  5. Ayyiieeee! It looks like something from Aliens! lol :)

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  6. We've just split our similar ( could even be the same fern but I lost its name tag) and have ended up with four plants. I wanted to move it to a different spot.

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  7. I love ferns, me But I only have some in the garden growing naturally. Beautiful they are. It makes these corners of the garden look lush and jungle-like.
    Lovely photos, once again, Mark.

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  8. These are a lovely colour!It seems late for all the new growth compared to other ferns?

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  9. I find ferns fascinating the way they unfurl, but I don't have any in my garden at all. Perhaps I should rectify that.

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  10. At first, it reminded me of 'War of the Worlds'. The scenery of the alien blood web/root work all over the place. :D I guess a fern is equally as nice.

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  11. Lovely! I do want this now, thanks!

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  12. Ferns can look really interesting, I've only really noticed this from your blog posts!

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  13. I love the way you have captured the movement as the fern unfurls Mark. One photo almost seems like a hand with the fingers starting to stretch out...

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  14. Wonderful colours and shapes. Ferns are amazing plants. We've recently acquired our first fern, and I hope to add one or two more in time too.

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