Christella Species, Southern Wood Fern, Southern Maiden Fern, Widespread Maiden Fern

Planted two of these in a moderately shady area of the yard (Denton, TX 76209). When winter came, they dried up and became a bunch of t...Read Morewigs which did not come back in spring. I want to try them again.

This fern is native to the USA (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas), Belize, Costa Rica, ...Read MoreEl Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Turks and Caicos.

In Zone 8b they freeze to the ground but reemerge in Spring, which probably keeps them from being too aggressive here..

We started with one little clump, dwarfed by the ivy that had overpowered an entire backwall of our house. The ivy went, the fern died in...Read More the fall. (Or so we thought). Next spring we redid the bed where it was and we found the fern roots. We had no hope but left them and covered them with a thin film of dirt. By the end of that fall the fern was more than 3 ft tall and had extended about 3 ft to each side. This year we hacked some root clumps out and spread them by one of the side fences. Hmmm talk about a nice cover for that cyclone fence!

Warning: the spores will spread all over the place and your fern will grown in every pot and every inch of dirt you have. Aggresive control is advised.