Lady Fern
Athyrium filix-femina (POLYPODIACEAE)
Planting and Growing Lady Fern
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow lady fern in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, fronds, and spores of lady fern
- Growing conditions for lady fern
- When and where to plant lady fern
- How to plant lady fern
- How to shape, prune and control growth of lady fern
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of lady fern
- Landscape uses of lady fern
- Pest and disease control for lady fern
Growing Lady Fern
Many cultivars and horticultural varieties of highly varied, medium-growing, erect, arching, rhizomatous, deciduous ferns, to 4 ft. (1.2 m) tall and wide, with deep green, finely cut, divided fronds, 18–36 in. (45–90 cm) long, usually with lance-shaped, toothed or feathery, opposite leaflets, to 1-1/2-in. (38-mm) long.
Commonly available cultivars include plants with feathery, irregular, crested, and beaded or pealike foliage, as well as those more typical of the species.
Lady Fern Planting and Care Guide
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 1–11. Hardy.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained humus mixed with charcoal or, in water features, shoreline sites. Fertility: Rich. 7.0–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Filtered sun to full shade. Space 2–3 ft. (60–90 cm) apart.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist during active growth. Fertilize monthly. Allow fronds to mulch rhizome throughout winter; remove when new fiddleheads emerge in spring. Propagate by division, spores.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, hanging baskets, borders, containers, edgings, ground covers in natural, shade, woodland gardens and water feature shorelines. Good as houseplant. Disease resistant. Slug, snail susceptible.