All the Dirt on Gardening

Missouri Plants Would you like to add a fern to your shade garden that will survive? How about a native Maidenhair Fern, also called Five-Fingered Fern? Part-shade to full-shade will keep it happy and coming back and it will tolerate but not thrive in deep, dense shade. Leaves scorch in direct sun. Maximum height is about one-foot and unlike many ferns, it's water needs are rated as medium - needs consistently moist soil. Not drought tolerant. Native in most of the southern half of the U.S., Missouri Botanical Garden says it is cold hardy from zones 5 through 8. There are 200 Adiantum, Adiantaceae family, ferns in the genus. They all have the same fronds, usually with black, glossy petioles (leaf stems) and fan-shaped leaflets. Their Rhizomes (their crawling underground stem that holds the roots and lives from season to season) are scaly. Check out the Hardy Fern Foundation for more selections at http://www.hardyferns.org . Under favorable conditions...