all together now

i made this photo last year. it took several hours to get all fiddleheads arranged just so. i would have loved to have tried a similar composition this year. but the weather didn’t cooperate, and once the sun came out, the ferns were far to impatient to sit for a portrait. maybe next year.

fiddlehead ferns (ostrich ferns)

frond interrupted

one of the stranger ferns i grow are called interrupted ferns. the name comes from the center fronds being interrupted by spore leaflets, as this photo shows so clearly.  the interruption seems to distress people. i often let friends come over and dig up ferns for their gardens. but no one wants the interrupted ferns. they find them homely. so, of course, i have become a bit protective of them, because it breaks my heart that no one ever picks them. what do you think? homely or invitingly different?

interrupted fern fronds

ostrich for the win

i am lucky i was able to catch even this little tip unfurling this year. we had two nights of soaking rain, and in the morning my fern were up to my waist and almost entirely unfurled. ostrich ferns are the ferns that produce the best edible fiddleheads. we were going to pickle some fiddleheads this year, but missed our chance. there was truly a one-day window.  oh well, now i get to enjoy my ferns with frond tips this year, instead of looking out over a bunch of blunt tips.

ostrich fern frond unfurling

little ladies

i have an abundance of five types of ferns: interrupted, ostrich, lady, sensitive, and maidenhair. they all come up at different rates. so, while my ostrich ferns are already thigh high, my lady ferns still look like this. while i am so vigilant to their growth in the spring, i am far less attentive to the rate at which they die back in the fall. i don’t think their is any correlation to the two timings: such as ‘first in, first out’ for example. but i must make a note to pay more attention in the autumn.

lady fern new growth

off to nyc!

hi all, i am heading to nyc for the week to visit my son at nyu. i have queued up a weeks worth of fern photos for you while i am away–mostly new photos, with a couple old favorites. this week, my ferns went from ankle high to thigh high in one week. even if it hadn’t been a busy week, there would have been no way for me to capture it all anyway.  i hope you enjoy the unfurling and can get a tiny sense of what that kind of explosive growth must feel like.

maidenhair fern frond