Ferns To Beautify Your Gardens (Part 1)

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With mind blowing green foliage and multi designed leaves, ferns make perfect garden plants. Even though ferns are flowerless plants the varieties of patterns, texture and shapes make ferns more beautiful than flowering plants. Most of the fern varieties are evergreen throughout all the seasons. They have long life span than any other garden plants and demand less care compared with any other plant. Ferns could be used excellently for cut-flower arrangements.

This leafy plant belongs to the family of 'Filcopsida', which is an ancient plant family with a history stretching back to two hundred million years ago, much before the evolution of flowering plants. These garden plants with more than 12,000 species have long life spans and some of them are good indoor growers as well. Some of them form a low spreading mound, while others create a bold upright clump.

When buying a fern
Always prefer healthy plants when you shop for a fern. You can decide a healthy plant by a healthy undamaged crown of new fronds and from the colour of the leaves. Check the root system since, a well developed root system is the sign of a healthy plant. As there are different fern available for different growing conditions, decide where you want your fern to grow like indoor, sunny outdoor, under shades etc... and find a suitable plant.

How to plant
Select a site that has partial shade or dappled light unless the fern particularly needs more sun. Most ferns do not like heavy shade. Your situation should also be protected from the wind. You should plant most species of fern in friable, well drained soil. Make sure the soil is not soggy or poorly drained. Mulching will help the drainage and condition of your soil over time. Light friable soil is ideal for ferns. Make a hole double the size of the bottom of the plant. If the plant is in a container, place the plant along with the container in the hole. Fill the hole with compost and small stones. Stones will help to improve the drainage and condition of the soil around the plant. If the soil is heavy, you may need to dig small channels radiating out from the hole to drain the soil.

The next step is to ensure proper caring for your dear plants. However, you have to wait till the forthcoming article to learn the caring tips for ferns and to choose from their wide varieties.