Lovely pics, @Silver surfer and @micearguers . The ferns on my "fern wall" are quite late this year. Hope to post some pics in the coming days (or weeks) if the weather does warm up a bit.
Wonderful picture of the big croziers and the unfurling fronds with the secondary croziers (if that's what they are called) @Athelas. Below is a picture of Osmunda Regalis in the bog garden of the Cambridge university botanic garden, with the fronds just opening. A few months from now they will be 1.5-2 meters long. In this picture you can see the imposing trunk system looking like a primeval bulwark (I wonder if there is a name for it). A few years ago there was a sign saying this fern can be seen in an 80-year old picture, indicating the age and longevity of the specimen. As perennials ferns are amazing garden plants, so many are dependable, tough, long-lived, and get more stately as they mature without becoming rampant.
Wonderful close up @LG_ - I'll have to rush out tomorrow and inspect mine! Our garden is very dry too (East Anglian chalky clay), with our Osmunda regalis in a clay-lined pot that is topped up with rain water, mimicking a mini-bog. How do you keep yours?
Badly! I made a little boggy area next to my pond, using leftover liner. I read that I should pierce it a bit but I think I did it too much as it's not very boggy at all. My Osmunda lives but is not happy. I have been trying to decide whether to move it to a wetter spot (not easy) or dig up the boggy bed and re-line.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
I think I saw a sprawling Osmunda regalis (rather than another fern) in Biddulph Grange gardens, completely in water. I keep my (as yet small specimens, purparescens and species) in this mini-bog that is essentially a pond where I allow water level to drop considerably before topping up again. Hence I'd think that re-lining would be a good option.
I think you're probably right. I've seen them in the streams in the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park (London) looking incredibly happy and healthy - and huge.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
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I have a rather dry garden, so not ideal for ferns, but I can't resist them. Inspired by @edhelka I now have an Athyrium filix-femina 'Frizelliae'...
And my Cyrtomium fortunei is looking the best it has done for some time.