Happy Holidays!

Can you believe it's almost mid-December and I'm still puttering around outside weeding and such?  We've had a couple of decent frosts but the ground isn't frozen yet.  There's still some green foliage in my garden: columbine, bergenia, male fern, hellebore, thyme, lamium, and yes, that awful garlic mustard and motherwort.

Male fern grouped with hosta, false solomon's seal, wild geranium, solomon's seal and enchanter's nightshade this past spring

I am still surprised about how tough male fern has been in my garden; it's weird to see them still green in December.

Actually, they're one of three fern species that have done well for me this year:  Robust male fern, maidenhair fern (a native) and interrupted fern (another native).  All are in soil with an alkaline clay base naturally amended with neutralizing oak leaves, lots of root competition, and part to full shade.

The first ferns I planted were maidenhair, deer and male ferns. The deer fern struggled right from the start and by the second summer I gave up on it. Happily, the maidenhair went ahead and made itself right at home.  What a dainty beauty!

The two male ferns I planted also went ahead and carved out a place for themselves.  They haven't gotten tall but their clumps have expanded, despite no supplemental watering, in soil that isn't always moist.

It's hard to see here but if you look hard you can see the
brown fertile leaflets halfway up the fronds of this interrupted fern

I did not plant my interrupted ferns.   I didn't even know what they were when I found them in my front yard.  (Note:  Ontarioferns.com was the wonderful resource I used to determine what the heck they were)  Perhaps the previous owner planted them or maybe they showed up on their own.  Either way I don't give them much water and they have to compete with a tangled mass of spruce roots.

'Ghost' japanese painted fern and my other athyriums
seemed to need more moisture than my other ferns this year;
they did not like our drought-y fall

Some other ferns I've tried did not make it, maybe because the soil is too dry, or heavy and alkaline: every ostrich fern I tried quickly died.  I've got a cinnamon fern that is struggling along and the jury is out on the japanese ferns and other athyriums I've planted.   I hope these make it in my yard; deer and rabbits leave all my ferns alone (so far) and that is an endearing trait if ever there was one!