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OTAGO PENINSULA

- The enduring beauty of New Zealand’s native ferns.

There are tree ferns including the soft tree fern Cyathea smithii, the dainty necklace fern Asplenium flabellifolium which makes a home on shaded dry stone walls, bold clumping ferns in the ground and epiphytes cascading from ancient trees, creeping ferns clinging to trunks and walls. But I have learnt to look again at these plants which define our shaded places. Each fern has its own definitive form, texture and grace. Together, in generous variety composed of infinitely variable traceries, they provide a lush, green, calming ambience.

Most of the ferns in the Larnach Castle surrounds have just put themselves there but I do plant them too. For placement in the garden, I don’t think of them just as ferns but use them to create compositions with other types of plants of differing forms, colours and structures.

The crown fern (Blechnum discolor) disports itself naturally under trees in quite deep shade where the soil is constantly moist. I lift them to transplant them closer to home to the shady side of the Castle Garden. This fern is upright and fulsome, often forming a trunk. I surround it with smaller plants so as to enhance this splendid structural entity.

The prickly shield fern (Polystichum vestitum) is a darker green than many ferns, and rough to touch. It’s a good big plant, useful for its shape and dark textural shadows. Here it can reach 2m across. Now that’s a good big foliage plant. It will take more sun than many other of our ferns and is hardier to cold temperatures so can be planted where other ferns may not thrive.

Asplenium ‘Maori Princess’ is a hybrid fern; one of its parents is the hen and chicken fern. Like this parent, it has little ferns that sprout along the fronds. These are the “chickens”. The chickens can be detached and planted out in a tray to grow on to make new plants. ‘Maori Princess’ is a vigorous plant with shining feathery leaves. It is trouble-free and easy to grow in moist, humus-laden or leafy soil in full or part shade. We grew on lots of babies as described which we have mass planted under trees. The joy of this plant is that it looks so healthy and happy, and is maintenance-free.

A kiokio (Blechnum novae-zelandiae) is at home on a corner. Maybe I planted it long ago, or maybe it put itself there. I really can’t remember. Other plants around it, I definitely planted except for a red Trillium chloropetalum which came up in the midst of this fern all by itself. Aren’t I lucky!

This story is about ferns not trilliums but I digress to tell you that trillium seeds have a fleshy body attached. This body is called an elaiosome. It is full of the right nutrients which ant larvae just adore. The ants make off with the seed and take it to their nest to feed their larvae who eat the elaiosome but not the seed. Being tidy and industrious the ants then take the seed to their waste disposal area. That’s why you can sometimes have trilliums, snowdrops, and certain other plants too, unexpectedly pop up in the garden.

I took ferns for granted just because they are here, everywhere, growing naturally in our cool, humid environment.

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2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

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