CHAPTER X 



Hardy Garden Ferns and Water Plants 



Fern Culture — Spores — List of Ferns — Waterside Plants — 

 Water Lilies 



NORTHERN exposures and moist places always suggest Ferns. 

 They are usually somewhat fragile and must be protected 

 from high winds. They need an abundance of water, but 

 prefer good drainage. Furthermore, they should be planted where 

 water will not continually drip upon them. Under trees they are 

 especially successful where they take care of themselves nicely. They 

 should be transplanted in early Spring or Fall^those in exposed places 

 better in Spring. They may be planted in clumps of all of one species 

 or they may be mixed. Among rocks, on a slope, is a very good place 

 for them. They vary in height from four inches to four feet. Ferns 

 possess creeping underground stems; some are deep, others are merely 

 surface creeping; a few have thick, upright stems, which are hard to 

 pull up. 



The soil that Ferns will like varies greatly. The best method of 

 knowing wha^ soil they need is to note where they grow naturally. 

 In general, most ferns like a deep, rich, not too heavy soil — better 

 with little peat in it. In their native habitat they have few or no 

 enemies, but in the garden they are attacked often by wood lice, 

 slugs, snails, caterpillars and the grub of the daddy longlegs. 



The Fern spores are very peculiar for they are produced in little 

 sling shots which are so small as to appear like brown spots on the 

 lower sides of the leaves. Some persons have thought their Ferns 

 unhealthy v/hen they have seen these brown areas, but this is not the 

 case, for it is the normal procedure to produce spores. When these 

 sling shots ripen they burst open and scatter their contents. These 

 spores, shed from the ripe sporangia, are thinly sprinkled on the surface 

 of soil contained in well-drained pots, which are covered with glass and 

 placed in saucers filled with water. The spores, instead of growing into 

 a Fern that we would recognize, produce little green plants like a heart- 

 shaped leaf, usually the diameter of a lead pencil. These green plants 

 produce spores and it is from them that the characteristic Fern grows. 

 The young plants should be pricked out into pans and when large 

 enough transplanted to three-inch pots. The roots in time fill these 

 pots and the plants are then ready for removal to more permanent 



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