Pretty as a picture
The shady shine of the Japanese painted fern known as Pictum.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
I am a big fan of using native ferns in shady landscapes, but there is one elegant Far East import that has found its way into my garden: Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum). This dazzling shadow dancer sports an alt-green presence where the sun doesn’t shine, with colorful fronds stretching to 18 inches long.
To defend my fancy for this foreign fern, I only have to crank my time machine back to 2004, when the Japanese painted fern cultivar Pictum was named Perennial of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. It was a well-deserved award because Pictum’s variegated green fronds heavily dusted in silver supported on wine-red stems refused to be ignored in the low light of shady gardens.
Almost 20 years after the PPA kudos, Pictum still remains popular, making it an easy find both at local garden centers and online nurseries. However, this eye-catcher now has competition from other elegant cultivars. Burgundy Lace and Metallicum sport colors similar to Pictum, while the pale, silvery-gray Ghost is a spectral treat in waiting. Ditto for the soft beauty of Silver Falls with its shimmering fronds complemented by reddish-purple veins.
Japanese painted ferns are made for the shade, but you don’t have to treat them like botanical vampires. In fact, if they are planted in an area that receives some early morning sun, their colors tend to have more zing.
While Japanese painted ferns are shade-lovers, they also prefer moist, humid conditions, meaning they are ideal plants for South Carolina’s steamy summers. In well-drained, humus-rich soil, these hardy deciduous perennials will spread by creeping rhizomes, forming colony clumps that can be divided in the spring to add their special shine into other dimly lit nooks and crannies in your landscape.
These deer-resistant ferns can stand some drought, but they survive rather than thrive in extended dry conditions, so supplemental waterings when the rains don’t come are advised. As long as their moisture needs are met, Japanese painted ferns can even make pleasing additions to shady containers, but do provide room to grow by tucking them away in individual pots that are at least 12 inches in diameter.
Japanese painted ferns don’t require a lot of fertilizer, so if you have the need to feed, use either a time-release product at half the recommended rate for other perennials or a low-nitrogen organic fertilizer.
June in the Garden
• If your inner gardener just wouldn’t allow you to toss a pretty poinsettia away after last Christmas became a memory, now is a good time to give it a vacation outside in a semi-shaded spot. For a fuller, more compact plant later, prune each branch back now, leaving three to five leaves on each stem.
• Do something different for the gardening dad in your life this Father’s Day by planting a specimen, unusual or hard-to-find tree, shrub or perennial in his honor.
Tip of the Month
Crape myrtles can be purchased anytime during the year, but buying them in midsummer gives you the advantage of seeing these beauties in bloom—and their flowers’ true colors. Plant tag images can fade, and they aren’t always accurate, so eyeballing the actual blossoms is a good way to go. Crapes planted in the summer scorch should be given well-prepared holes, plenty of mulch and regular waterings. A good alternative is to temporarily tuck away your potted crape cuties in a semi-shady spot, water them weekly and wait until the fall, which is the prime planting time for woody ornamentals.
L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.