I recently noticed that my Dryopteris Erythrosora fern was beginning to form some new fronds, so I cut off almost all the foliage remaining from last year, which was looking tatty to say the least.
Hopefully the fact that the plant will now get more light will assist it to develop quicker and stronger. There are quite a few new fronds coming up already.
As you can see, these rather weird-looking fronds start off being a deep russet sort of colour, and when they unfurl they will initially be dark gold, and then later will turn to green. I think this particular fern is much more interesting than many of the plain green ones.
This "adolescent" frond looks as if it has overdone it when applying the hair-gel!
My green ferns are a bit further advanced:
Last year I removed several Ferns like the one seen here, because I felt they were becoming too dominant.
In the place of the Ferns that were removed, I put a Lysimachia Ciliata "Firecracker" plant, which I had previously had growing in a pot.
Lysimachia is an herbaceous perennial, so it died down during the Winter, but it has come back strongly now, and is shooting up rapidly. It will eventually be about a metre tall.
At present its attraction is in the deep red/purple foliage, but in due course it will have a mass of small bright yellow flowers.
I know that Lysimachia has a habit of spreading rapidly, but I have put it in a place where it will have stiff competition, not only from ferns, but also from the adjacent Japanese Anemone "September Charm" and the Wild Garlic which is well-established in that little corner.
If you are fed up with the rain Mark you can send it our way, we need it desperately, and it's too darned hot! We moved back from Spain because of the heat and now we have it in Ireland.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this Lysimachia before, Mark. Is it a shade lover? Could be very useful in my shady border, if so. I adore ferns but you did well to get one of those out - there's an enormous fern in my mum's garden which appeared from nowhere and is badly placed against a fence so is hard to get out. It's root clump is now huge and I fear we will have it for a long time.....
ReplyDeleteCaro, I'm not sure whether this Lysimachia likes / tolerates shade. I only got it last year (at RHS Wisley), and it spent the Summer in a pot in full sunshine. We'll see how it goes in its new spot, which is North-facing. You're right about ferns being hard to remove - it was a struggle!
DeleteThat particular firm is always well behind the other firms in our garden to. I'll be interested to see if that Lysimachia actually is less dominant than the furnace you originally removed. We once had one with green leaves which was quite a thug. Maybe the bronzy coloured leaved ones are better behaved.
ReplyDeleteI too had not heard of Lysimachia - hopefully it stays put. I'm having an issue with sweet woodruff that, up until now, spread fairly slowly, but this year it seems to be going crazy (perhaps because of our mild winter??)
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