A NY FLOWER WOULD BE HARD-PRESSED TO COMPETE with the two most colorful ferns in the garden here, which have been showing off since the first crozier poked through the soil surface in early May and won’t stop till very late fall. No wonder I grow so many Japanese painted ferns and autumn ferns; they make shade gardening look easy, adding heavy doses of purple and silver or coral and gold, respectively, and never asking for so much as a deadheading in return.
Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’, Zones 5-8) is well-known to most gardeners the last decade, a showy thing with varying proportions and intensities of silvery-gray and purple coloration on its parts. Depending on your conditions and what it says on the label of the selection you buy, the painted fern will be a foot to 18 inches high and two or three times that wide. They poke through the soil purple, like their midribs (detail, above), and I love every minute of their annual show.
Speaking of labels: I read them, sure, but most of all what I look at in the garden center is the individual plant and how well it displays the promised characteristics. I bought my best painted ferns (long before there were named selections like ‘Ursula’s Red’) just by eye, taking the best ones off the nursery bench, and each time I divide them I am guaranteed more of the precise genetic material of the parent plants. (My best ones aren’t in the area captured in these photos, but in the underplantings by my oldest magnolia, as you may recall.)
The autumn fern (or autumn shield fern, Zones 5-8 or 9), another Japanese species (Dryopteris erythrosora), was always a very good plant, with bronzy coloring in spring and a lustrous surface to the foliage. In recent years the selection process to emphasize more of its best traits has resulted in named form called ‘Brilliance,’ which is just that. Very good got great. It is arching and reaches 18 to 24 inches high and wide here, in moist shade; once established, it is said to tolerate dry conditions, but I have not asked that of it.
From the first sign of the autumn fern’s crozier each spring the story is warm coral-like colors, and gradually by summer the show subsides to a nice shiny bronzy-green.
The two together seem to me to make a whole shade garden, with little else required. What do you think?
fall planting: 21 powerhouse perennials i’d order 
a plant i’d order: hakonechloa ‘all gold’ 
beloved conifer: microbiota decussata 
Enchanting, essential plants. My garden would be seriously lacking without these two. Your gorgeous photos rewind my mind to the middle of April, when these plants are usually at their height here in North Carolina.
The deep garnet fiddleheads of Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ are like a narrow, shaggy red carpets opening up into the glowing, amber “brilliance” of the open frond. This is an absolutely impeccable recommendation, folks.
Not to go on and on about colors, but the jewel tones of the the Athyrium niponicum selections have the potential to shock visitors. Occasionally, they can’t believe the teal, turquoise, fuchsia, and amethyst are organic whatsoever.
I can’t wait to see them in person again next season.
The perennial garden is not about flowers, they pass to quickly. Gardening is all about foliage texture, and foliage color. Your photos shown, the grays, burgundys, chartreuses and blue-greens that make a garden more than just GREEN. I have a wonderful fern, that my mother dug from the woods when she was about six. She is now 83. It is the toothed fern. It is a clump forming jewel, not a runner like the ostrich fern, I also have.
margaret,
what post-season care do you give your ferns? do you cut these down in the fall like other perennials?
Just this spring I planted those two side-by-side, as you have. Seeing your pictures reassures me that for once, I actually planted something in the right place the first time. Beautiful.
@Denden: Most of the ferns sort of leave their own mulch at their feet, which withers down to practically nothing, so I leave it if it isn’t a mess…I just eyeball it to decide the aftercare, if any. I can’t recall having to really cut it off (except with the occasional evergreen link Christmas fern maybe if in a prominent spot) but more commonly just mulching over what’s left. So use your judgment, I think.
@Erin: I suspect you have made more good combinations than you admit to. We are all our own worst critics, aren’t we?
Couldn’t garden without ferns. I started buying them years ago for my shady garden and I can always find a new spot or a new fern. I can’t do roses but ferns I can do. They look great tucked away in shady corners or just about anywhere.
Beautiful. Could use a little “brilliance” in one of my corners …..or two.
Margaret, I cut my old ferns fonds off in early spring – they don’t wither for years. I assume this is to do with climate but I find fern fonds very persistent. I have both of these plus lots of other ferns, they are a great favourite with me. I would grow more if I had more room!
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
Just gorgeous. I want to get some of these to add to my little woodland garden, which currently consists of hostas and ferns culled from my dad’s property in southeast New Hampshire (I live in Niagara Falls, NY). Thanks for posting these!
Welcome, Amy. Glad they appeal, and are what you are looking for. :) See you again soon.
@Sylvia: The more I think about it the more I think that some kinds leave behind lots of debris and some don’t. I will have to pay more attention in fall.
I love both of those and have them planted throughout my shade gardens. I love a plant which works well in both your climate and mine.~~Dee
@Dee: I can’t believe we have struck upon not one but *two* plants that work for both of us! Hallelujah! So interesting to me to learn this, thank you. Wonder how these beauties do it in such diverse circumstances. Amazing.
Reading through the fern comments, a lot of the discussion was about left over fern debris. The taller ferns (24″‘ to 30″, or taller) if they are like the toothed fern, from the woodlands, have a lot of fronds, and leaves a lot of russet colored debris, after being hit by a hard frost. The ostrich fern, with a tall “vase shaped” growth habit, produces less fronds, so the debris is less. With all ferns, frost hit debris can be ripped, or cut off in the fall, or early spring whenever a person is cleaning up that part of the garden. Some years, while mulching the leaves, I have taken the mower to them. The ostrich fern produces a kind of mound (crown), after the first year. Every year after that, new growth comes from that spot, and new underground runners. I cut or break off fronds, to clean up the plant, but am cautious, not to damage that “crown”. Ferns like the cinnamon fern, will leave a kind of seed stalk that could stay in place for a long time if not removed. The ferns that Margaret showed , most likely, don’t having a tall growth habit. Being shorter plants, they will just disappear guickly during the winter, leaving not to much remaining. I have an evergreen fern, in a corner of the back garden. It just appeared one day. A bird must have DROPPED it off. In the dead of winter, if it has some snow coverage, it is still green. When buying ferns for the garden, find out if what you like is a clumper, or runner. Some ferns can be evasive, if not kept in check.
Have you tried the ‘ghost’ lady fern? It is my favorite. A very dependable plant, adds a lovely gray to the garden, but is taller than the japanese painted fern. I particularly like it with blue hostas.
Laura – you beat me to the punch! I was also going to suggest ‘Ghost’. In my competitive garden it’s a better doer the Japanese Painted fern. Also really love ‘Branford Rambler’. Not quite as showy but really hold its spot all from spring through fall.