{"id":7004,"date":"2016-03-01T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7004"},"modified":"2015-10-09T17:52:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T21:52:16","slug":"autumn-fern-changes-with-the-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/03\/01\/autumn-fern-changes-with-the-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn Fern Changes With The Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Autumn<\/a>

Autumn fern at Atlanta Botanical Garden<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Autumn<\/a>

Autumn ferns in Container planting<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ferns are fine textured lacey-leaf groundcovers.\u00a0Many\u00a0kinds of ferns\u00a0add a tropical\u00a0accent\u00a0to\u00a0the shade garden. Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora<\/i>), aka Japanese wood fern,\u00a0 has\u00a0evergreen or semi-evergreen arching foliage,\u00a0depending how cold it gets\u00a0in winter\u00a0(USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8).<\/p>\n

Its common name is misleading. Best frond colors are in spring;\u00a0the fronds unfurl with a coppery-red or pink tint and gradually fade to bronze-green after 4-6 weeks. In late summer, bright-red spore clusters (sori) appear on the frond’s underside. In fall, fronds take on more of a russet tone.<\/p>\n

Most winters autumn fern stays evergreen in zone 8. It grows happily beneath large shade trees or in dry soils. In the first year start off with plenty of water, compost, and mulch to get the root system established. It prefers an evenly moist soil, and\u00a0mildly acidic soil pH between 5.5 and 7.0.<\/p>\n

In early spring emerging fiddleheads (fronds)\u00a0unfurl\u00a0to form\u00a0a vase-shaped clump,\u00a018-30 inches tall and\u00a0wide depending on age. At planting, space\u00a0this fern 16-18 inches apart for dense coverage. Indifferent to heat, humidity, and cold, this moderate shade lover excels in full morning sun in zone 5 and 6, but wants more\u00a0shade in southerly climes.<\/p>\n

From then on,\u00a0autumn fern\u00a0performs season after season\u00a0with little additional care. It has no serious pest or disease problems and soil nutritional needs are minimal. Applying\u00a02-3 inches of\u00a0leaf mold is almost equivalent to feeding with slow release fertilizer.<\/p>\n

The cultivar ‘Brilliance’ grows 2 feet high and wide and\u00a0offers\u00a0long seasonal impact. Its frond’s color is exceptional, that is,\u00a0the upper surface\u00a0has a rich coppery tint and high gloss which holds through most of the summer and turns russet in autumn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Ferns are fine textured lacey-leaf groundcovers.\u00a0Many\u00a0kinds of ferns\u00a0add a tropical\u00a0accent\u00a0to\u00a0the shade garden. Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), aka Japanese wood fern,\u00a0 has\u00a0evergreen or semi-evergreen arching foliage,\u00a0depending how cold it gets\u00a0in winter\u00a0(USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8). Its common name is misleading. Best frond colors are in spring;\u00a0the fronds unfurl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1188,910,674,1092,628,551,627,202,843,812,1059,601,777,1210,630,646,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7004"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8159,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7004\/revisions\/8159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}