2-10-09: Blechnum spicant

Blechnum spicant Deer ferns are tidy, compact, bright stars in the shade garden.

Their leathery, glossy, deep green foliage makes them a perfect year round plant that is very noticeable in the garden and woodlands right now. Deer fern have two distinct leaf type fronds. The outer fronds are sterile and spread horizontally, the upright fronds are fertile, and they appear later and are vertical and stand above the lower fronds. This Pacific Northwest native is happiest in moist, acidic soil in partial to deep shade. Tuck them into pots, logs, tight places amongst sword ferns, vine maple, mahonia, rhododendrons and Mountain hemlocks. This is a durable, low maintenance easy fern to grow. It grows 8 to 20 inches tall by 2 feet wide. Deer fern is named so because it provides food for deer in the winter when there isn’t much else. The roots are edible to humans and leaves brewed as tea, not choice food but good in an emergency.

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