Hardy ferns of the cottage garden

The hardy ferns were very much a part of the cottage garden. Unfortunately many of the extremely fine named kinds grown dur­ing Victorian times were irretrievably lost during the First World War and their popu­larity subsequently waned. They are now seeing a marked revival and despite the lack of improved garden varieties, there are still enough species, forms and old selections in cultivation to satisfy the most discerning gardener.

Our native male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, is undoubtedly one of the most useful, for it will thrive in almost any soil or situation. A coarse growing plant of dignified stature with broad lance-shaped fronds, it attains a height of a metre (yard) or more. Its op­posite number the lady fern, Athyrium filix-femina, is equally tolerant of situation, but a trifle more elegant in structure. With grace­ful arching fronds it has been the delight of gardeners for many years and under the influence of cultivation has given rise to many very attractive forms and varieties. Both the hard shield fern, Polystichum acu-leatum, and soft shield fern, P. setiferum, sport bright green scaly fronds that remain in character until well after Christmas. The closely related holly fern, P. lonchitis is completely evergreen and with the hard fern, Blechnum spicant, lends height and colour to the garden during the winter months.

For poolside planting few ferns can sur­pass the tall and stately royal fern, Osmunda regalis, its handsome fronds being mirrored in the water as they change colour from lime-green through yellow to bronze. Unfortunately these delightful autumnal tints are short-lived, for at the first touch of frost the leaflets shrivel and hang wearily from the semi-persistent frond stalks. Often grown in association with the royal fern, the sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis thrives where its spreading rhizomes are allowed to creep into the water and colonize the shal­lower areas. Its fronds are flattened, about 30 cm (1 ft) high and change from rose-pink to an agreeable shade of pale green as the summer progresses. The ostrich fern, Mat-teucia struthiopteris, appreciates a similar position, thrusting up handsome pea-green fronds like huge lacy shuttlecocks. Under favourable conditions these may reach a metre in height and produce curious dense spikes of rusty coloured spores from the centre of each plant.

In drier shady places the hart’s tonge fern, Asplenium scolopendrium, and its vari­ous crested and crimped varieties may be tried. This is a tough little fellow with broad solid fronds some 45 cm (18 in) long that resemble dock leaves rather than fronds. They are more or less evergreen, persisting until early spring when the young emerging fronds take over. The small divided fronds of the common polypody, Polypodium vulgare are almost evergreen too, but this little fern requires much damper conditions. In nature it grows amongst moss on old walls and boulders and consequently prefers these conditions in garden situations.

The various spleenworts inhabit similar places and are excellent subjects for the rock garden. This is a rather doubtful feature in the cottage garden, but crevices in old walls serve equally well if one is being a purist and excluding alpine gardening altogether. Cer­tainly spleenworts, like the tiny maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes and the black spleenwort, A. adiantum-nigrum, would have been utilized by the cottage gardener and can still be seen in such gar­dens to this day, especially in the damper regions of Britain. The maidenhair spleenwort has slender arching fronds which sup­port legions of tiny round leaflets for their entire length, while its cousin the black spleenwort has attractive triangular fronds on slender black stalks.