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Moss, Ferns & Cryptogams

Christmas Ferns

13 years ago

I bought some Christmas ferns from an online nursery. Even though they are evergreen, they arrived "dormant," which doesn't make sense to me (but that is beside the point). After I planted them last summer, some of them put out a few fronds. However, none of the ferns grew very large (some of them just a couple of inches). As the fall season set in, two or three of them completely lost their fronds. That being said, several of them are still as green as ever. Does this mean that the ferns that lost all of their fronds died? Also, does anyone have any advice for growing Christmas ferns? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (3)

Iris GW
13 years ago
I think you'll just have to wait and see. Sometimes you can poke around in the area of the crown to see if there is any living tissue.

If you live in the Atlanta metro area, you can get locally rescued Christmas ferns at the annual plant sale held by the Georgia Native Plant Society. This year it will be April 20 in Marietta.

Here is a link that might be useful: GNPS
supernnyl
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks so much for the info, esh_ga!!!
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Lynda Waldrep
13 years ago
Yes, wait to see. One summer we had no rain, and the Christmas ferns literally curled up and, I thought, died. In the fall as soon as we had rain, they slowly emerged.

And they really are not evergreen but rather "winter" green. The old fronds will die back when the new ones come on. Again, you will be able to tell in the spring.

Good luck.

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