{"id":8579,"date":"2017-03-07T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=8579"},"modified":"2016-07-01T17:47:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T21:47:49","slug":"autumn-fern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2017\/03\/07\/autumn-fern\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn Ferns Offer Lush Tropical Touch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Autumn<\/a>

Autumn fern in mid-spring<\/p><\/div>\n

\"'Brilliance'<\/a>

‘Brilliance’ in a June Garden<\/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<\/em>), aka Japanese wood fern,\u00a0 has\u00a0evergreen or semi-evergreen arching foliage,\u00a0depending how cold winter\u00a0is (USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8).<\/p>\n

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

Once established,\u00a0autumn ferns\u00a0grow happily beneath large shade trees or in dry soils. Initially, start them off with plenty of water, compost, and mulch to get root system established.\u00a0They prefer an evenly moist soil, and\u00a0mildly acidic soil pH between 5.5 and 7.0. Established plants are moderately drought tolerant.<\/p>\n

In early spring emerging fiddleheads (fronds)\u00a0unfurl\u00a0to form\u00a0a vase-shaped clump,\u00a018-30 inches tall and\u00a0wide depending on age. Clumps spread slowly by underground\u00a0roots. At planting, space\u00a016-18 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\u00a0deep coppery tint and high gloss,\u00a0rich green color\u00a0through most of the summer, and returns to a russet color\u00a0in autumn.<\/p>\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), aka Japanese wood fern,\u00a0 has\u00a0evergreen or semi-evergreen arching foliage,\u00a0depending how cold winter\u00a0is (USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8). Its common name is misleading. Best fronds color is in spring; fronds unfurl with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1188,605,778,674,806,1092,665,628,551,202,843,812,1059,601,629,630,646,1222,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8579"}],"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=8579"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8588,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8579\/revisions\/8588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}