Description

Matteuccia struthiopteris. Ostrich Plume Fern. (Matteuccia germanica)

A bold fern for a damp to wet site. The creeping underground stems producing a colony of regular, tall, pale green shuttlecocks that look especially good with the light shinng through their fronds. Shallow rooted, so easy to curb. to 150cm. Shade and moisture as long sun exposure can brown the frond tips. From Central Europe

Ferns

The cultivation of ferns is a huge subject, way beyond the scope of the few words I will write here. However I’ll do my best to give some notes on each genus and its peculiarities of cultivation and any other information that strikes me as interesting.

The craze for growing ferns originates in the Victorian age, gaining momentum in the latter half of the 19^th Century. Fuelled by and explosion of literature Victorians went forth into the countryside to study and collect native specimens by the armful. Just as there was huge interest, so a multitude of varieties and variations were spotted, collected and names. Many, many are now lost, but some still remain and can frequently be identified by the now outlawed Latinised cultivar names such as Polystichum setiferum ‘Plumosum Densum’.

Whilst most ferns enjoy misture and a soil that never dries out completely, the requirement for water is not as necessary as many might believe. In fact, the list of ferns that enjoy a boggy site is probably much smaller than a list of those that will tolerate a dry site. Athyrium, Osmunda and Matteuccia are amongst the wettest lovers. Try these pages for more information on moisture requirements.

A generalisation would be that ferns like a fertile soil with good drainage. Many grow very well on shady banks. They frequently do best in bright shade, with most ferns being able to take a reasonable amount of sun providing that they do not endure full sun during the middle of the day. Asplenium is perhaps the most notable exception, with its leaves sometimes scorching.

As regards PH, most ferns will grow quite happily in any soil that doesn’t have and extreme of either acidity or alkalinity. If you were to rank them, Dryopteris, Athyrium and Osmunda would prefer a soil on the acid side, with Polystichum and Asplenium preferring in t alkaline. This however should be taken a s a guide not a strict prescription.

So to sum up, provided you can avoid a sunny South facing bank, or dry site on sand, you are likely to have success with ferns in a wide range of positions and soils. You might like to look at the following two pages to help refine your choices.

Matteuccia

These are plants of wet places, thriving at the edge of water. They are unsurpassed for the even grace of their shuttlecock form. Ample moisture is a prerequisite, with a little shade being advisable to prevent leaf scorch in the Summer.

Matteuccia commemorates a 19^th Century Italian Physicist Carlo Matteucci

struthiopteris derives from the Greek ‘struthokamelos’ = Ostrich and ‘pteris’ = fern