Ferns are hard to come by that can handle our Florida weather. Other than the boston types we have few that spread. Here is one that I have been told is native, climbs and no one know its name. I take cuttings from the rhizomes and as they spread away from the tree and plant them around. It is fast grower if well watered. To me it almost looks like a palm.
Anyone know of rare types of tropical ferns and a source for them?
This message was edited Jun 9, 2006 7:55 PM
Here is another shot of the same plant.
dale, this site looks good, but click on the banana and it looks like they are temporarily out of action.
http://mgonline.com/treeferns.html
Tropical ferns, and they have Adiantum peruvianum! One of my all time wants!
http://www.glasshouseworks.com/fernpage.html
useful links
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Plants/Tropicals_and_Exotics/
great fern by the way!
Wallaby,
Where do you find the time to track down all these links? Do you sleep? How many search engines do you use? I search and never find a tenth of the sites you have. Are you a professional research whiz?
I did business with Glasshouse, you should read my comments under WatchDog. I will probably order from them again, using a pseudonym and a different address, but, only in the fall after the spring rush is over. They have plants no one else carries
If you really want A. peruvianum I can pick up a 4" and tube it to you when the moon is new :-}. We have all the Adianthum species here and some hybirds too. Want a collection of 3 different ones, maybe?
And because I have so many photos, unrelated to the topic, I will throw one up on your screen....
Ahh wierd humor...
Dale so many questions, don't know if I have time to answer them all! Yes I do sleep (6.5-7 hours), but late and get up late-ish, you're a few hours behind anyway and not much happens on DG until late. Not bound by the 9-5.
I use one search engine, AOL has Google as it's standard, but I use image search as well. It's the words you use that make the difference, now what did I use, 'rare tropical ferns'. Sometimes a more general word works better than a specific one. Not a professional, just a search whizz, not a kid either.
Now I can stop being clever, and say oh yes that would be absolutely whizzingly marvellous! Let me know the terms and what there is, and if I can do anything for you..
Don't know if I should read your comments for Glasshouse if you have to change your name, sounds....hmmm interesting, I'm off to have a look!
We have a new moon now.....and what lovely variegated leaves you have there, the back two are amazing, is the middle Colocasia Chicago Harlequin?
Here is a site that will show you photos of native ferns for florida. I dont know if the list is complete, but it's a beginning. http://fig.cox.miami.edu/~scofield/sofl_plants/fern_index.html
I found this site because I found a very small fern growing in my mock orange tree, and was concerned about it maybe being an old world climbing fern that is considered to be the kudzo of south Florida...heres the site for that plant:http://www.invasive.org/eastern/species/3046.html (I dont know why it wont post as a hyperlink...)
Hope you find the one your looking for in the right list!
P.S I forgot to add that the one in my tree was the invasive old world climbing fern, and so it doesnt live here any more... and even better yet, the one you posted does not look anything like the one I have gotten rid of. Whatever it is, I do hope you post back here when you get an answer, its very beautiful.
Finally found its name Stenochlaena tenuifolia from the old world tropics. Yeah for me, persistence pays
wallpaper...
A South African climbing fern!
http://www.nbi.ac.za/lowveld/tour2.htm
I thought it looked a little more palm like, now I know why!
Wallaby, that last link you posted was marvelous
dale, stenochlaena tenuifolia is fab looking. This link says it only grows in FL. That can't be! I want it!
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=STTE6
voss, move to Florida?
I bet it would grow in Brownsville, it needs warm winters. You may get a little too cool for its tastes. Never know tho, what you offering? If you go to the trade thread I am looking for crinum. You are in the right area since East Texas is a hotbed of crinum hybridizing.
eye candy...
Are you looking for only 'rare' ferns or are you looking for sources for perhaps unusual zone 10 ferns?
doss,
Unusual is good too.
this is not here...
LOL - this is not here. Not here either, especially not in July. I've included clumping ferns that can be divided since I was looking. Hope that this isn't too disorganized.
I don't know if these are what you call 'rare' and only some of them spread but:
I'm very fond of Pteris - beautiful variegated foliage. It will get up to about 3 feet tall here. It clumps but it's easy to divide and conquer. And lemon button fern may look plain but it's a great ground cover fern. It gets about 12" tall in the ground.
http://www.blackjungle.com/blackjungle/FM.html
I've purchased from them - good source.
Very often you can find the pteris in florist shops.
Pteris also is available at Plant Delights Nursery. expensive shipping.
And Fancy Fronds has some cool ferns for zone 10. Use the fern database and plug in your zone. Not too many, but a few.
http://www.fancyfronds.com/
Argentine False Maidenhair and others at: (You can sort by 'fern')
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/05384.html
Shipping is very expensive at plant delights.
Pyrrosia lingua (hart's tongue or felt fern) but it appears sold out at Plant Delights.
East Indian Holly Fern - which I love - but a clumper
http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/cgi-bin/searchstuff.pl?Catagory=Fern
All of the holly ferns (also at fancy Fronds) - also clumpers but great for texture and can survive almost anywhere. The larger ones get quite wide - 3 feet across and only about 18" tall.
http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/cgi-bin/searchstuff.pl
Others at Big Dipper farm
Microlepia strigosa (a clumper)
Polystichum tsus-seimense (a clumper)
Selaginella kraussiana 'Casa Flora's New' (spreader) Any of the spike mosses are and will reportedly grow in zone 10.
Thelypteris decursive-pinnata (is a spreader)
That's as far as I went.
At Forest Farm Nursery.
Asplenium (Phyllitis) scolopendrium (clumper)
At any of these places phone for availability. The worst trouble I've had is that they ship what they have and don't let you know what they don't have.
Hope that this helps some. I have quite a few others but I'm in zone 9. I wouldn't have guessed that zone 10 would have been so different. It's been an education!
Doss,
Thanks for the tips. I have ordered from Big Dipper, but never looked at the fern section. I included a little note with my order about trying new plants from a climate that was so different. They sent a little note saying I was in 'zone denial', seemed an odd response, how about good luck or hope for the best. I am going to try their holly ferns, the usual specie comes up all over the place here, especially creek bank retaining walls.
Plant Delights sent me their catalog once, long ago. I never got around to ordering from them, too many moves. I am more settled now. Might take a chance inspite of their excessive profiting on shipping. Guess they really don't like mail order. Kind of like Annie's Annual in Richmond, shipping there is $24 for the 1st plant and all they have is 3-4" pots, starter plants.
I will have to go over Fancy Fronds a little more slowly. Sometimes when a seller says zone 10 they mean coastal CA. I live in another world, even LA doesn't have the extended heat we have.
We have most of the salaginellas available here $4-5 for a 6 inch pot. I have had mixed results. We have bugs you have never seen and they have a taste for it. It is beautiful and short lived mostly. I get tired of replacing it. They have some unusual species out at the USF Bot Garden and you can't buy them anywhere, oh well.
I have lemon button fern, the wholesalers grow it. I also have a small selection of birds nest ferns, 4 different ones and lots of 'small' ferns that I keep in pots. I was surprised as I went through the websites how many of them we have available. We have lots of the tropical madienhair ferns (my favorite is peruvianum). I have one wholesale place I go that carries 15 different kinds, all cost $1.25 each in trays of 12.
Thanks again for including me in your research.
This message was edited Jul 11, 2006 8:52 PM
Sounds like you have it all in hand. You may want to buy some of the holly ferns from Fancy Fronds. You can talk to the owner, Judith. She is very helpful. A real person to talk to.
I'm in zone denial a lot. I'll stretch zone 8 to zone 9 but I know that I lose a lot of plants that way. Just ask my hostas - or the ones that are still surviving. LOL
I found a site with ferns on that will boggle the mind. It's in Thailand, they do have an on-line shop but very few ferns for the month.
Lots to look at though, just keep going to the 'next' page at the bottom. Two previous pages with Salginella and others.
http://www.fernsiam.com/FernWorld/Gallery/A1-01.html
I bless the day I found the research whiz. I sent them an email, hope they sell spore. Ah I could use a new science project!
Some of those ferns were extraordinary. I have seen maybe 30 of them before. The salginella they have were great, would love to try some of those spores on a rotted log.
wallpaper>
There's a few dozen I wouldn't mind having! Not fair!
How many windows do you have on you little cottage? You will need to leave some space for light to get in the dining room at least!
Ummmm, the big kitchen window is full of cactii, little one orchids, but I do have a long lounge window and bedrooms! And walls!
It is the middle of your night. Your sleep walking, go back to bed, you will come to your senses by morning.
wow, that website is too much for words. please everybody, ck it out! Not that this is the best plant, but one of a gazillion awesome looking plants. I wonder if all these ferns are at one location. Thanks wallaby for finding and sharing.
http://www.geocities.com/fernparadise/Vittariaceae/Vittaria/Vitta.html
The horrid winters of my Zone 4 are making this thread very hard to read. I can drag in only so may plants, and this year it's brugmansias, so I can only drool with envy at your collective treasures and schemes. Meanwhile, my mother and I continue to tidy the fern mine for a photo shoot. It's been terribly hot here and she can only manage an hour or so a day. (Me too)
andy, join the club! Gosh your mother is doing very well to manage an hour a day!
It's hot here too, over 36C in one place today and the next week is to be very hot. No rain either!
Wallaby, we are hearing about the heat wave in your neck of the woods. I know you guys aren't used to that so I will "nag" you to be extra careful.
Yeah Wallaby!! Don't over do it. It is hot everywhere here in the states although it's supposed to cool down starting tomorrow night and really go down on Friday. Yea!!!!
Thanks for the nag, no I'm not overdoing it, just watering the plants! So much potting on etc needs doing!
Dale,
What're those little yellow flowers in what looks like your grass? Obviously not grass, right?
GG, 5th photo down from the top of this thread? That is a perennial peanut, a groundcover in warm areas, all the rage here in FL to replace sod that is not walked on alot. Takes some skill to keep it weed free as a monocrop, i.e. preemergent chemicals. Tough as nails once it gets going and can be mowed. It doesn't take heavy foot traffic very well. Low water needs once it has its roots down. Doesn't like any kind of winter, goes dormant even in the low 50's and comes back when things warm up.
I have seen it mixed with sod that gets mowed weekly and it spreads and does very well here. It is good for those who want a chemical free grass/groundcover that gets mowed. I have several plants that I am using in my front yard. The peanut, a mimosa (pink power puff flowers) and a native plant with large yellow disk flowers that the bees love. I have given up on grass to a large extent. Too many bugs in FL love to eat grass. I live in a duplex and my landlord has a 'landscape maintenance' guy who only comes by twice a month and mows the area down to 1", not many grasses will take that kind of whack job and live. So if you can't beat 'em plant something they can't kill.
This is a thyme 'lawn' in England....
Gymgirl, I saw that grown as a groundcover at Moody Gardens and several locations in Galveston when I was there last week. It is as wonderful as it looks in Dales pic. I can think of many places where I could use it. I meant to "help" myself to a little bit of it, but my mind was here, there and everywhere and I soon forgot.
Vossner, You would have a very difficult time getting it to grow unless you have a misting system. Grows well from cuttings, but, you have to mist it every few minutes, say 25-30 times per hour for the first few days and it need lots of light while rooting. If I find a 4" starter plant I will buy you one, usually we have it in a 1 gal. Grows fast in summer. I am willing to bet you will see it at the nurseries soon, it is a good plant for the subtropical south. I have never noticed insect damage on it.
Here it is again...
and again....
yep, that's the one. I bet you're right dale, I should see it here soon. Once it is established, though, do you need to water as much?
Thanks for the info.
Vossner, Once established it gets by on rainfall here. Would do better with some irrigation if you get hit with a drought. It does take a lot of water to get it going, especially if the ground is dry already. I lost the first one I planted because we were having a long dry spell, it only rained 1" at my house in 4 months, Feb-May. The last one I planted is doing very well. I think it takes less water than turf, from what I have observed. I know it takes less water than St Augustine to keep it looking good. The local landscrapers are using it and the City has started to use it in median strips on many streets, very low maint. once it gets going. If left unmowed it will get at least 6" tall (or deep), maybe taller?
