Sweet-fern

A fascinating small shrub with wonderful foliage that grows in dry or well-drained acid soils with a native range from Newfoundland and s...Read Moreoutheast Canada through most of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and down the Appalachians to northern Georgia, spots in Ohio, near Lake Michigan in Illinois and Indiana, northern Michigan, northeast Minnesota, and most of Wisconsin. This member of the Bayberry Family also has very fragrant foliage when crushed. The leaves are supposed to be edible by humans, as they are by deer. It is difficult to transplant, but it is often sold by native plant nurseries. It fixes nitrogen into the soil as it does ground sucker some. I've seen quite a few in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. I planted a small, young plant in the far backyard, but I think the rabbit got it. I'll try again.

I garden in the Pacific Northwest in zone 8 a. I was unsuccessful the first time I tried to grow this in what I now believe was too much ...Read Moredry shade. I eventually pulled the struggling plant and called it quits. A few years later I found one small stressed out plant at a large local garden center and the price was right so I thought I would try it again. I planted it in more sun, richer soil and a naturally winter wet (not soggy) location. It has now been about three years and I have a very nice little colony under-planted with a small variegated Symphytum. The Symphytum is now getting overtaken by the Comptonia.

I have had this plant for about 16 years...beautiful plant. In the late fall, the scalloped leaves are a combination of bronze, gold, re...Read Mored, and green before turning tan and dropping. I probably have it at its southernmost limit? I brought it with me from Maine, and planted it in a mix of horrible construction backfill and clay soil (dirt?), and it took off...
The plant is now about 4.5 feet high and sends out new sprouts rhizomatously. It has not grown much width-wise....but has filled out. I love it.

I would see this plant all over in the Brule River State Park up in Wisconsin. It always is found in sunny locations with well drained (...Read Moresandy!), slightly acidic soil. It is found in conjunction with Jack, White, and Red Pine, blueberries, Hawkweed, Pussy toes, Bearberry, Barren Strawberry and Sand Cherry. The smell is citrusy, and sweet. Only a couple plants are needed for the fragrance to really get around. They have a deep tap root, so transplanting them from the wild successfully is nearly impossible. Best to start from seed, in my opinion. Good for a rock garden, bonsai, or a raised berm. Not alkalai or salt tolerant.

I have not yet grown this plant but there is a very informative article about Sweet-fern including the best time to take cuttings at ...Read Moreref="http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/445.pdf" target="_dgnew"rel="nofollow">http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/445.pdf

This plant needs dry, sandy, crap soil with little or no nutrients,

I've now killed this plant three times. I've been able to successfully culture it in a pot, but the moment I put it in the ground it alw...Read Moreays dies. For that mater, I've transplanted ones from the wild and established them in pots fairly easily. I just can't get them to grow in soil. There has got to be some soil requirement they need that I'm just not understanding... If someone figures that out then please post.

Sweet fern grows wild in our area of Connecticut and we just ADORE it -- it's not only beautiful but smells so sweet. My husband and I ...Read Moretried digging one up from the wild one time and transplanting it to a dry rocky area in our yard, but it died immediately. I've since read that it is extremely hard to almost impossible to transplant a wild one and that you should look for nursery grown plants. We were hiking this weekend along some power lines in a hot, dry, rocky area and there was a whole field of sweetfern and I was inspired to see if I could buy some online. I just found some for sale on eBay from seller "WildthingsNursery" and ordered them -- I'm hoping I can get them to grow in my yard! I'll report back and let everyone know if they made it or not.

4/25/2010 -- UPDATE ONE YEAR LATER: I just double checked the ebay seller's site and they are not selling them this spring, and I wanted to correct the name, it's 'Dawn's Wild Things" -- I'm going to email her to see if she will sell me another one! I ordered one sweet-fern last spring and she sent me three in order to increase my chances since they are notoriously hard to grow -- thankfully, that strategy worked, one was pretty much "doa" -- another leafed out but died later in the summer, but the third one took really well and lived all summer -- and it has come back this spring!! It hasn't grown, but it's still alive! I'm so excited!

I did a little research as to where to put it and found the following information: "well-drained, dry, acid, sandy or gravelly soils. Drought and salt tolerant. Dry, sterile, sandy to rocky soils in pinelands or pine barrens, clearings, or edges of woodlots"

So I decided the best spot in my yard would be an area where we took down a blue spruce several years ago -- I've since put wood chips in that area and turned it into a perennial garden, but I put the sweet fern right next to the stump where the spruce used to be, in full sun all day -- it gets really hot there and several other perennials had died there due to the somewhat harsh conditions, but the sweet fern is still living as of this spring.

This plant so far for me has been difficult to establish. I have tried to start numerous small plants that have been transplanted, and t...Read Morehey have all wilted away.

Clint

If you are walking in sandy pine woods in southeastern MA or on Cape Cod, it is difficult to escape this plant and its spicy scent. It d...Read Moreoesn't like to be disturbed in the wild, and those who want to grow it should be able to find it available from New England nurseries that sell woody plants. Nursery stock takes transplanting and garden culture much better than wild stock, but the plant does need to be babied a bit while it establishes itself.

Sweet fern grows wild along my street - several neighbors have it growing in abundance. We have two 3x4' shrubs and two that are still s...Read Moreingle stem, 1-2' tall. They are growing on a bank, and seem to be hanging on in the face of some serious erosion.

The fragrance is strong enough to catch traces of it as you walk by, although I had to roll a leaf between my fingers to verify exactly where it was coming from.

I couldn't find anyone who could identify what it was, and early searches and modern books all failed me. One night I was flipping through a 1930's era book "Our Northern Shrubs" and there it was - very distinctive long leaves, that look like overlapping alternate plates that give it a fern-like look, hence the common name.

It does a great job as a supporting shrub, and would work well in a woodland garden. Probably wouldn't be well suited for more formal affairs, however.