Farne Standardsorte

Season Overview

Description

If you are looking for beautiful ornamental foliage plants for shady garden areas or an easy-care houseplant, ferns are a must. Ferns literally belong to the dinosaurs among green plants. Around 400 million years ago, the giant tree ferns formed dense forests with their fronds and thrived together with the lycopods and horsetails. This makes ferns not only one of the first plant species, but also one that has survived to this day. The remains of these large fern forests can be found today as lignite. In terms of evolutionary history, ferns represent the transition from flowerless to flowering plants. Most of them are now extinct, but more than two hundred genera with around ten thousand species are still widespread worldwide. The largest specimens today are found in shady, warm, humid places, especially in the tropics or subtropics, but ferns also thrive in cooler climates and are real stars in the shade. Ferns grow herbaceously. Most specimens develop an extremely persistent rhizome that can last for many decades. The characteristic fern fronds impress with their filigree shape. Leaflets branch off laterally from the midrib. When young, these leaflets are curled up and slowly unfurl in spring. The leaf fronds of the numerous fern species and varieties vary in color, shape and size. Their graceful growth and lush green make ferns first-class candidates for shady corners of the garden, even without flowers. Winter-green species such as the hart's tongue fern, for example, adorn the garden even in the cold season. Although the fern fronds do not sit on a stem, twig or trunk like the leaves of flowering plants, they otherwise have all the characteristics of a real leaf: a central rib extends from the stem, from which the so-called leaflets branch off sideways almost symmetrically. Some species such as the horseshoe fern (Adiantum pedatum) and the northern striped fern (Asplenium septentrionale) deviate from this. Otherwise, this pattern varies in a thousand ways: Some ferns have an extremely short stalk, others an overlong one. There are also countless variations in the division of the blade, the pinnation, whether single, double and triple pinnate frond blades or unfeathered as in the hart's tongue fern. The ferns are particularly fascinating when they sprout in spring. The fronds for the following year are already formed in the fall. Rolled up and protected by so-called chaff scales, autumn leaves and old fronds, they survive the winter. At the beginning of the growing season, the fern fronds gradually unfurl, resembling a bishop's crook or violin head. Unlike flowering plants, ferns do not produce flowers and seeds, but spores. The spores are located and develop in spore containers, the so-called sporangia. These are located on the underside of the fern fronds and can be recognized as dots, lines or spots. Fern fronds without sporangia are infertile (sterile). With a few exceptions, these two frond forms are almost identical in appearance. However, there are species in which the spore-bearing fronds are clearly different from the normal fronds, for example the royal fern (Osmunda regalis) and the funnel fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris).

Growing tips

Ferns are the perfect choice for shady garden areas. They like to grow in loose, humus-rich soil, like that found naturally in the forest. In the garden, you can imitate this litter layer effect by leaving autumn leaves lying around. As an additional layer of mulch, the leaves also provide natural winter protection and improve the soil.

Details

Light requirement

Semi-shaded

Water requirement

Moist

Soil

Medium (loamy)

Nutrient requirement

Medium

Light germinator

Germination temperature

20 - 25 °C (Degrees Celsius)

Plant distance

60 cm

Row spacing

60 cm

Seeding depth

0.1 cm