An Effortless Evergreen Fern

A few yr ago we hiked the 268 - Roman mile ( but who ’s reckon ? ) Pennine Way in England , share part of the trail with a blighter named Jack , who was walk the 1,215 - mile remnant to End Trail from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland . After every showery , visionary day of nibble our mode through squelchy bog , Jack would bring together us for dinner looking like he had just walk off his yacht . Pressed shirt , crisp chinos , clean shoes , and not a hairsbreadth out of place — how did he do it ? Needless to say , we suffered in comparison .

In our garden , we refer to Asian cavalry sword fern as “ Jack , ” whose attributes never ease up during foresightful stretches of summer dryness or wet winter snow . Jack ’s casual perfection of presentation is a tidy asset in the garden , although we have caught neighboringfernsmuttering the casual unkindness .

Who can fault them ? Shiny , darkly jade evergreen fronds have bipinnate pinnae ( individual leaflets divided into smaller leaflet ) that are rank along a contrast , shaggy , fat browned stipe or stem . The plant can get up to 30 inches tall , although smaller forms are sometimes uncommitted .

This is a astray - range metal money from the Himalaya into Tibet , China , Japan , and Taiwan . With such a broad geographic dispersal , it is logical to find some fluctuation . We ’ve see it in its born habitat on various trip-up , with perhaps the best ones being in Hubei , where the plant life were compendious and particularly dour greenish .

Jack — or rather , Asian sabre fern — is easily planted in full to low-cal shade or even a little morning sun . It is prettydrought tolerantonce established but show best energy when give that good , moisture - retentive garden soil we all care . Because it is such a ace in the garden , why stop at one if you may have a grouping to ratch up the impingement ?

One of our favorite design techniques in our collector ’s garden indite of drifts of one is to apply a stellar all - time of year plant like this as a unifier to draw together disparate plantings . We might plant one along the track entrance , another one off on the far edge , and then a grouping of three before the wench of a expectant rhododendron ( Rhododendronspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–11 ) . We find this trick offer a repeating conversance that helps cool one ’s processing scrap in our garden of unfamiliar plants , but it works equally well as a strong design component in any worthy shade bottom .

Asian saber fern

Polystichumneolobatum

Zones:5–8

atmospheric condition : fond to full tone ; moist to dry , well - run out soil

Native range : Asia

Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken maturate some of the cool flora on the planet at Far Reaches Farm Nursery and Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy in Port Townsend , Washington .

Sources

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Evergreen Ferns for the Northwest

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evergreen fern

Photo: courtesy of Far Reaches Farm

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