Glade Fern

Sometimes simplicity is the best answer, and if you love a natural look in your garden, then you will adore the Glade Fern. This handsome native plant, found in woodlands throughout the east, is now available to gardeners too – and a lovely creature it is too. With elegant fronds rising up and out, the pinnae (leaflets) grow almost horizontally from the central stem, and rise to as much as 3 feet tall. Later in the season you will see taller fronds appearing, with narrower pinnae – look underneath and you will see the brown spores that are the ‘seeds’ of ferns. This plant spreads slowly by underground stems, but it isn’t invasive, just offering you a larger, more impressive clump. Grow it in woodland gardens, rock gardens, on wooded slopes, and with other shade-loving plants. It will bring a air of calm beauty to your garden, and is very easy to grow.

• Graceful, arching fronds up to 3 feet tall
• Forms a gradually expanding impressive clump of green
• Produces taller, more slender fronds with spores later in the season
• Tolerates deep shade well
• An attractive native plant worthy of any garden

Plant the Glade Fern in a spot with some morning sun, or in full shade. It has good tolerance of deep shade, more than many other ferns do. Grow it in a moist, rich but well-drained soil and don’t allow it to dry completely. If it should shrivel in summer it will come back the next spring as good as ever. Tolerates wet soils, clays soils, and slightly drier soils too. Deer and rabbits don’t eat it, and it doesn’t have any pests, although watch for slug damage during very wet weather. Cut back the old fronds in fall or winter once they are no longer attractive. In more natural areas the fronds can just be left to collapse naturally.