Type

Flower · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Foliage color

Green

Sunlight

Shade to half sun

Watering

Moderate

Soil

Moist, rich, well-drained; more forgiving than most ferns

Feeding

Gentle all-organic

USDA zones

3a–8b

Frost tolerant

Yes

Plant out

at the last spring frost

Plant spacing

23.6 in

In-row spacing

17.7 in

Between rows

2 ft 6 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Root system

A creeping rhizome with wiry black roots

Working depth

4–12 in

Can reach

18 in down where the soil allows

Spread

2.5–5 ft across, about 1–2× the width of the plant

Shallowest pot

8 in of soil

The rhizome runs at the surface under leaf litter, which is exactly where a fern wants it: covered, damp and never disturbed. Bury it in soil and it rots, leave it bare and it dries, so leaf mould over the top is the whole of its cultivation.

The habit is Lady fern’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.

When

Not harvested. Tidy in late fall or early spring, divide in spring when wanted.

What to look for

Fronds browned by frost; or a clump grown big enough to share.

How to harvest

Cut the old fronds away before the new fiddleheads rise. To divide, lift the crown in early spring and split it with a spade into fist-size pieces, each with fiddleheads showing.

How often

A yearly tidy; division every four or five years if you want more.

Storing the crop

Nothing to store. Divisions go straight back into the ground the same day, watered in.

• Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.