Crow Dog Native Ferns and Gardens

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Dryopteris intermedia (Fancy Fern)

D. intermedia prefers cool forests (often rocky), coves, and edges of wetlands of the Appalachians. It has an ascending rhizome, and a conical display of fronds up to 35 inches in height. D. intermedia will flourish in shady, moist rock gardens with rich soil in the mountains and slopes along the Carolina Inner Piedmont and north.

Dryopteris marginal is (Marginal Wood Fern)

D. marginalis is an evergreen fern with an ascending rhizome forming a conical distribution of fronds that reach a height of 24 inches. Its native habitat is usually rocky. It is excellent in borders, in mesic forests, along stream/pond banks in shade, and shady rock gardens.

Habitat Codes

LIGHT

L..Low filtered sunlight

M..50% canopy

H..25% canopy

FS..Full sun, 5-6 hrs.

MOISTURE

Moisture: H..hydric..wet

M..mesic..average

X..xeric..dry

Matteuchia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern)

The Ostrich Fern is famous for its culinary fiddle heads that are commercially marketed in New England. It is a very large fern with a conical display of ostrich-plume fronds that reach 4 feet in height. Its compact, but tall, central braid-like fertile fronds emerge in late summer and fall. Although occurring in the wild from Virginia northward, M. struthiopteris grows well in North Carolina and northern South Carolina.

Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern)

Onoclea sensibilis is a wonderful ground cover of 1-pinnatifid light green fronds that likes average garden moisture and part sun. When its fronds emerge in the spring, they are a beautiful pinkish-purple until they mature. It is a branching rhizomous creeping fern and is dimorphic. Fertile fronds arise in the early fall as tall narrow stalks with rows of bead-shaped sori. It can reach a height of 1 1/2 feet.

Osmunda cinnamomea (Cinnamon Fern)

This is a cosmopolitan fern of the eastern half of North America. It is found in moist meadows, sunny marshes, and moist thin canopy forests. It grows to 40 inches in height. Its fronds are conical style from an erect rhizome. It is excellent in sunny wetland gardens, around water bodies with some full sun, and in moist, open woods. with a thin canopy.

Osmunda regalis (Royal Fern)

This is a cosmopolitan fern of the eastern half of North America. It is found in moist meadows, sunny marshes, and moist thin canopy forests. It grows to 40 inches in height. Its fronds are conical style from an erect rhizome. It is excellent in sunny wetland gardens, around water bodies with some full sun, and in moist, open woods. with a thin canopy.

Pellea atropurpurea (Purple Cliff Brake Fern)

Pellea atropurpurea is strictly a rock garden fern and prefers crevices in rock high in calcium such as marble, limestone, and amphibolite. It is a small 1-pinnate fern with dark purple stipes and dark blue-green pinna. It is most often found on rocks on open canopy to sunny slopes.

Phegopteris hexagonoptera (Broad Beech Fern)

Broad Beech Fern is a long rhizome fern with vertical stipes and nearly horizontal broadly triangular blades. The lowest pinna pair is reflexed upward on the adaxial surface out of the plane of the pinna pairs above. The winged rachis makes the fronds 2-pinnatifid. It forms a beautiful light green,1 2 inch high ground cover.