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Sweet Fern, an easy addition to the native garden
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:09 am
by HamptonsGarden
Sweet fern, comptonia peregrina is an easy and adaptive shrub for the garden. Grows wild in my neck of the woods, but looks graceful in te garden.
[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Qk4sH5x93NI/TiLpsXwxEOE/AAAAAAAAAZU/zHoPpM3_DTc/s160-c/SweetFern.jpg[/img]
Re: Sweet Fern, an easy addition to the native garden
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:36 am
by tomc
[quote="HamptonsGarden"]Sweet fern, comptonia peregrina is an easy and adaptive shrub for the garden. Grows wild in my neck of the woods, but looks graceful in te garden. [quote]
Comptonia is a PITA to grow.
Its second cousin to bayberry, a much easier shrub to move, propagate, or care for.
Comptonia in my NH garden trasplanted best in the fall and held overwinter in mostly sand (3 parts sand, 1 part sifted bark mulch).
It does not tolerate any grass growing in its bed or pot. Site your rooted plants in full sun, in a very sandy bed.
Root barrier are encouraged. Not to keep plant in, but to keep lawn out.
You me and Mike Dirr may be the only people who ever bothered to grow this shrub.
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:50 am
by applestar
I have one!
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:31 am
by john gault
I was watching a documentary the other night about different theories of what killed the dinosaurs -- not everyone believes the asteroid impact 65 mya is the primary cause.
Anyway, ferns seem to be very hardy plants and thus were found within the KT boundary https://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/extinction.html
Just an interesting fact I thought I'd share.
Excerpt: "The terrestrial plants suffered to a large extent, except for the ferns, which show an apparently dramatic increase in diversity at the K-T boundary, a phenomenon known as the fern spike."