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Fond of Fronds

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  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    Woodgreen said:
    @LG_ Polypodium Vulgare grows a little too readily in drystone walls here so it's not a fern I grow deliberately. 
    I do have to pull lots of it out of the walls, and it carries on growing if bits are left in so I would think it will cope with being cut into two.
    Thanks  When the rain stops I'll go and take a photo of the 'lump'.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    edited May 2022
    I had a look at this one after you posted about dividing yours, but then I'm afraid I forgot to post..
    This is polypodium vulgare 'Bifido Multifidum' and grows on the ground in a rather dry spot.
     I noticed it has spread gently, after many years, and seems to send out rhizomes, which would make it easier to divide just by severing a section. 
    Perhaps you'd be better waiting until your polypody does this, then you'll have a separate crown with roots?

    It's strange, but the only common polypody ferns here grow in walls! When I pull them out they have flattened crowns where they've been growing in tiny gaps between the stones.


  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited May 2022
    I am so delighted that there are other people here that love ferns and are taking such super pics.
    They are so underrated.
    They are pretty well bomb proof and just get bigger each year but without getting too tall .
    Garden here is tiny...I only have a few now, but in old garden I bought every fern that I found for sale in any nursery/garden centre./rare plant fair.

    Enjoy all your fab ferns.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    The dead polypody fronds tend to fall off as the fresh ones grow, but I remove them sometimes in order to enjoy seeing the new ones unfurl. 
    These photos illustrate how they colonise the walls here when happy!


  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    I am so delighted that there are other people there that love ferns and are taking such super pics.
    They are so underrated.
    They are pretty well bomb proof and just get bigger each year but without getting too tall .
    Garden here is tiny...I only have a few now, but in old garden I bought every fern that I found for sale in any nursery/garden centre./rare plant fair.

    Enjoy all your fab ferns.
    Thank you from me @Silver surfer, and I'm sure other fans of ferns too.   I hope you enjoy your select few, I'm sure you must.
    Thanks also @micearguers for starting this thread.
    The variety of form, texture and colours is incredible really, and I must admit I used to buy any fern I came across at nurseries etc if I was sure I hadn't already got it, because they are so versatile.
    Yet as the photo above shows, the plain 'natives' are just as stunning, if not quite as unusual.
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    edited May 2022
    Thanks @Woodgreen - those polpody (Polypodia? Polypodiums? Polypodys? Polypodies?!?) are amazing. I live in the driest bit of the country and can only dream of seeing things like that!

    I'm in no hurry to do anything with mine, I'm just curious about its 'crown' as it's a solid lump. It's difficult to show it in a photo, but this is it. It's about 6" across and rock hard! You can see the odd frond emerging and several have come up in the last week or so. 


    Edited to add: the dark areas are also solid, the green bits are like raised folds but there's no give in them, they're very much part of the lump.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    @LG I think I'd chop that in two, but as you can see, I'd have replacements if it failed!
    Seriously though, there are quite a lot of fronds emerging. If it was mine I'd try it but keep it really well watered afterwards. I wouldn't dig it up to do the deed, just put a sharp spade through it and dig half of it out.
    But it's your decision!


  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Such beautiful photos!
    Thanks for creating this thread, as I too am an avid lover of all things fern.
    currently not in my north London garden, which has quite a few in it, but in the New Forest, where the ginormous shuttlecock ferns unfurling their lime green tips are just glorious.
    Shall post some pics when I return.
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