I love ferns and have multiple kinds growing both indoors and out. I have to admit that they are a little tricky to identify but for the most part, I can come up with an ID that satisfies me.
So, when I transplanted a beautiful fern from our land in north Georgia down to the garden in Atlanta, I thought it would just be a matter of looking it up to find a name. This is a very distinctive looking fern with unique characteristics. It is covered with black hairs and the fronds, instead of being in a circular coil like other ferns, are folded back onto themselves. So, I thought it would be no problem finding the name. I thought it was probably native since it was growing in the woods, but I wasn’t sure because it was not far from the house.
I went through all my books and even dragged out my mother’s copy of Getting To Know the Ferns that she used a half century ago. I Googled it, of course, and spent hours scrolling through fern images but nothing looked even close.
This is where I’m going to lose some of you. You either “get” the obsession of having to know the identity of a plant – or you don’t. Many of us have obsessions, mine just happens to be a relatively severe case of plant mania. I literally stayed awake at night trying to figure it out, images and possibilities flitting through my mind. But I still came up empty handed, or empty minded as the case may be.
But I knew help was on the way. Forty master gardeners were coming to look at my garden, surely someone would know. But, no! We were all intrigued but no one could come up with a positive ID. Back to the drawing board, or actually the phone on my camera. I took lots of pictures. I contacted a fern nursery. No response. I called a local nursery. No answer. Finally, it occurred to me that there must be an American Fern Society. Which, of course, there is. And they have a Facebook page. I hurriedly joined their “group,” became their new best “friend” and posted my pictures. Within an hour, I had an answer. Dryopteris cycadina. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Just kidding. Commonly known as shaggy wood fern, it is NOT native to North America but instead is native to China and Malaysia and is obviously sold as a cultivated plant here. It is a handsome plant and one that I’m glad to have growing in my garden. But more than that, I’m just glad I know what the sucker is. Now maybe I can sleep at night
Oh, and for the sensitive maidens? Other ferns, of course. Both maidenhair and sensitive ferns have a strong presence in my garden and thankfully, I know their names.
