10 Best Ferns For Flower Beds And Flower Beds. List Of Names With Photos

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

Ferns are unique and irreplaceable plants for landscape design. There are no better decorative deciduous crops for decorating shaded areas of the garden, plants that allow such an effective play on the motives of the landscape style. But limiting the scope of ferns to only compositions with natural charm would be a big mistake. After all, ferns can become an interesting design element even on flower beds, ridges or alpine slides.

Content:

• Expanding the use of ferns
• Ideal place for ferns in the garden
• 10 best ferns for decorative garden arrangements

Expanding the use of ferns

Ferns with their mystery, majesty, antiquity and special character are able to revive the shady corners of the garden and radically change the nature of the design. There are no plants that are better at creating a calm green backdrop for relaxation, offering such rich shades of green, or boasting more sophisticated and filigree shapes.

But at the same time, ferns for many remain plants that in landscape design can only be used in natural-style compositions or where you need to fill the soil under the canopy of large trees. But ferns are plants no less versatile than the main herbaceous perennials from among decorative deciduous crops. They are able to impress with a variety that opens up new possibilities for the selection of species for various decorative tasks.

Beauty, grace, and the special charm of ferns are revealed not only in secluded corners. It is high time for ferns to come out of the shadows, literally and figuratively. Despite their shade-loving nature, ferns do not have to be planted only where other garden plants cannot settle: there are also places with secluded lighting on flower beds. And it is certainly not worth considering them as plants that will not find a place in the ceremonial compositions of the garden and flowering ensembles.

The fact that ferns are not customary to use in the design of mixborders and flower beds does not mean at all that they cannot be planted in any decorative composition in the garden. The ability of ferns to bring in a kind of oases of peace, mystery, nobility, as well as their filigree lace - all this can set off the beauty of flowering perennials and shrubs no worse than their classical partners.

Ferns in the company of ground covers, undersized or medium-sized soloists, bright or more modest herbaceous crops will reveal their beauty no less than under the canopy of shrubs and trees. In flower beds and other decorative ensembles, ferns can become an unexpectedly expressive accent, a unique tool for introducing architectural contrasts, a means of ennobling and structuring, playing on lines and drawings.

Contrasting with most garden plants, ferns are able to reveal their proud beauty in any company, but they do not detract from the attractiveness and merits of any, even the most humble, plant in the neighborhood.

Ideal place for ferns in the garden

The only limitation on the possibility of using ferns in the design of flower beds, mixborders or other decorative flowering compositions is imposed by the conditions for growing these plants.

Ferns, which belong to the shade-loving species, can only accept semi-shade lighting; they should be placed so that they are shaded by larger species from the bright sun, or in places with natural diffuse shading from buildings and fences.

Photophilous ferns can live in almost any composition. But much more attention should be paid to the composition and characteristics of the soil. Ferns develop well and grow only in nutritious, containing a lot of organic matter, light in composition and fairly moist soils. For them, as for most herbaceous plants, raw, depleted, uncultivated types of soil are not suitable.

Before planting your ferns in a flower bed or mixborder, be sure to improve the soil with compost and be sure to use it to mulch the soil around the plant. The only exceptions to these norms are the so-called stony ferns and those species that feel great in nature on rocks and can settle in rock gardens. But even these plants prefer shaded areas and high humidity (when placing them in rocky gardens, make sure that large boulders or stones provide sufficient protective shade).

10 best ferns for decorative garden arrangements

1. Common ostrich (Matteuccia struthiopteris)

A fern with a height of 80 to 130 cm, one of the most beautiful and largest. It is famous for its almost straight, uniformly symmetrical leaves and light green color. It's a pleasure to watch the wide fringes of this fern unfold.

Ostriches prefer semi-shady locations and moist soil, have a creeping rhizome and tend to spread on their own.

It is no coincidence that this fern won the title of the classic and the most versatile. Noble, filigree, not too large and bright enough in color, the ostrich offers to introduce the beautiful greenery of ancient garden favorites in a composition with herbaceous perennials.

The ostrich is an ideal partner not only for the most popular flowering plants, but also for large flowering shrubs or very large perennials with huge leaves (eg Rogersia).

2. Polypodium ordinary (Polypodium vulgare)

A small but very beautiful fern. Despite the fact that the height of the polypodium ranges from 10 to 30 cm, it seems massive and even somewhat rough. The lobes in the leaves are dense, massive, not so densely arranged, but very symmetrical. The fronds are directed in different directions, practically lie on the ground, the chaotic pattern of the fern rosettes adds expression to the compositions. Polypodium looks impressive, but not at all strict. Deeply separated leaves sit on long and slender petioles, are preserved for the winter.

This fern prefers semi-shady or shady locations and will only grow in sand or unknown soil with good drainage.

Polypodium is used for compositions in rocky gardens, but it can even be content with a place in a crevice. Its use is not limited only to decorative compositions in rock gardens, flower beds with stone filling, but it is also suitable in narrow mixborders near stone walls or in flower beds on slopes.

3. Adiantum pedatum

The height is limited to a maximum of 60 cm. This is an amazingly beautiful carved plant with narrow fan-shaped fronds of leaves on almost black petioles and a light emerald, sometimes seeming almost blue, color. Curly, elegant, it creates a beautiful cover as a ground cover.

This is one of the smallest, but by no means the least beautiful ferns. The maidenhair conquers with its filigree beauty and amazing graphics of the bushes. Small frond with a lace pattern create very fancy accents.

Maidenhair is only able to grow in shade, tolerates strong shade and needs uniformly moist soil with an obligatory acid reaction.

The beauty of this fern is beautifully revealed against the background of stones in the alpine hills, in the company of ornamental grasses and ground covers on any flower garden or in a mixborder.

4. Pharmacy comb, or ordinary (Ceterach officinarum)

A very original miniature fern, the height of which ranges from 5 to 20 cm. The rounded wai lobes give the plant a similarity to snake patterns. Evergreen leaves, collected in small rosettes, multidirectional.

This fern prefers to grow in calcareous soils, thrives in the sun and in partial shade. This is the only drought tolerant fern that can be content with a sunny location. The scrubber loves limestone soils.

A squeegee in the foreground of any decorative composition will look luxurious. The play of lines and textures in contact with perennials will allow you to create unexpected transitions and bold modern solutions.

5 and 6. Kostenets for every taste

Skolopendrium Kostenets (Asplenium scolopendrium) is a shade-loving compact fern with a height of 10 to 40 cm, the evergreen whole leaves of which seem very unusual for this family. The leaves resemble a hybrid of horseradish fern, make a very original impression. The wavy edge and purple sporangia only emphasize the originality of the plant. Kostenets needs shading, it can grow on alpine hills in dry soils.

The hairy bone (Asplenium trichomanes) is also a rather miniature fern species. Cirrus, narrow, simple frond leaves seem airy, unusual, persist for the winter. At a height of 5 to 30 cm, the Kostenets sets bright vertical accents and strikes with the texture of almost air outlets. This type of fern is able to settle only in slightly moistened soil, in partial shade, it is well tolerated with minimal rocky soils.

These ferns can decorate any rocky garden and even rockeries in portable containers. The hairy bone is able to settle in brickwork, in narrow crevices on a minimum amount of soil.

7. Dryopteris erythrosora (Dryopteris erythrosora) and other species of dryopteris

Medium-sized ferns, the height of which ranges from 30 to 70 cm. Winter-green almost triangular leaves are distinguished by their density and surprisingly graceful, feather-like structure with pointed lobes at the ends, which gives the plant a more noble appearance. The color with reddish-brown tints seems to be original, from a distance - golden or copper.

This fern likes partial shade or more intense shading. Shieldworms need moist soils, even if their volume is minimal.

This type of fern is one of the most beautiful additions to all decorative deciduous herbaceous perennials, which are often used in flower garden design due to the unusual texture and spectacular color of the leaves. The beauty of the host, the cuff and the beast is revealed in a new way in the company of this fern.

8. Derbyanka spicate (Blechnum spicant)

A beautiful fern with a height of 30 to 80 cm with narrow, rather dense frond of silvery-green color. One of the rare ferns in which spore-bearing and non-spore-bearing leaves are collected in one rosette. The rosette is formed by sterile, once-feathery and hibernating leaves, fancifully lying to the ground and forming tangled ornamental patterns.

Derbyanka is able to settle only on calcareous soils with a sufficient degree of moisture. Prefers partial shade.

One of the ferns that can be used not only to decorate flower beds, but also in flower beds, rock gardens, in the design of dry walls or other compositions with stony soils.

9. Royal Chistostom (Osmunda regalis)

One of the most airy, lacy ferns, which seems to glow from the inside thanks to a lighter yellowish-green color and almost transparent, filigree fronds. Large and powerful, with bushes up to 2 m in height, it flaunts shiny fronds, changing color from reddish spring to summer green and golden autumn.

Chistoustom needs moist and even moist peaty soil and a semi-shady location.

Chistoustom is able to create a surprisingly graceful backdrop for more massive plants. Most often, this culture is used in decorative compositions on the shore of a pond, but it can become an excellent partner for any large and massive plants, create a stunningly beautiful background for large-leaved perennials and shrubs, and is suitable for decorating damp flower beds.

10. Polystichum setiferum

A large and rather variable fern, which in favorable conditions can reach a meter in height. The leaves are dark green, filigree, dense, with a brightly distinguished sorus and a serrated-bristle edge, wide, most often curving in arcs and spreading. The rosette seems to be sloppy, but very elegant.

Despite his shade-loving nature, the multi-rower is not at all afraid of the sun. This fern prefers light soils with high nutritional value.

The fern can become an air partner for absolutely any flowering herbaceous perennial, especially for summer-flowering species. Modest in any other place, this fern gives the impression of a somewhat sloppy, loose, it slightly creeps into the territory of flowering plants, while creating a surprisingly harmonious contrast and giving an airy lightness to abundant ensembles.