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Fern growers


greenzone5

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Hi!

Have here many fern growers? I like this plants lot, i grow them as bromeliads same terrariums and vivariums as cp`s and orchids.

Can you recommed easy and hardy species?

I have Platycerium bifurcatum, Phlebodium sp. and Microsorum pteropus in aquarium.

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I'm a beginning fern grower. On the windowsill I have garden centre cultivars of Nephrolepis cordifolia and Asplenium australasicum, spore grown Asplenium/Phyllitis scolopendrium, unknown Adiantum species, and Pellaea viridis.

Of these my favourites so far are A. scolopendrium and P. viridis. The others aren't doing that well for me, either because of the low indoor humidity, or because as a CP grower I'm bad at at repotting and fertilizing plants in a timely fashion. A. scolopendrium isn't really a houseplant, my spore grown plants are just being kept indoors until they reach a certain size (and the weather warms up), but it seems they can do OK indoors.

I've only had Pellaea viridis since october, but it shows promise. It's drought-tolerant and has a weedy reputation. On a whim I scattered spores in a few random pots, 2-3 months later there are a few small sporelings visible.

Here are some ferns recommended as house ferns in the book Fern Grower's Manual:

Adiantum hispidulum

Asplenium antiquum

Asplenium australasicum

Asplenium bulbiferum

Asplenum daucifolium

Asplenium nidus

Cibotium schiedei

Cyrtomium falcatum

Davallia fejeensis

Davallia mariesii var. stenolepis

Microsorum grossum

Microsorum punctatum

Nephrolepis exaltata

Pellaea rotundifolia

Phlebodium aureum

Phlebodium pseudoaureum

Phlebodium bifurcatum

Pteris cretica

Pteris tremula

Rumohra adiantiformis

Many of those are big and may not be suitable for terrariums. The book also lists recommendations for terrarium ferns, but in my opinion these recommendations may be little worth for ferns, because compared to CPs it's difficult to obtain specific species. That said, the British Pteridological Society has a spore exchange which offers spores of very many fern species, and webshops selling terrarium plants sometimes offer a few ferns (see http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43336).

Growing ferns from spores is a little more difficult than sowing seeds, but definitely doable. (Ferns have a interesting life cycle, worth reading about if you're interested.)

There are many ferns which can grow outdoors year round. Some have different colours (e.g. Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum') or look unusual (Cyrtomium fortunei, A. scolopendrium). Garden centres only sell a few different species here in Norway.

Edited by johns
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I don't have many ferns yet, but we can get a nice variety, and the ones I have seem to survive quite nicely in this climate. Space is not as much of an issue, so I am able to experiment with different species. Asplenium nidus, and Asplenium plumosa are my favorite so far. You seem to have a nice collection, have you got some photos of your plants?

Regards

Nadja

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Have anyone here a member of British pteridological society? I`m thinked to join, but i have to ask can i join it, becouse i live in Finland? How it work?

Thanks for the list johns! Maybe in summer i can change spores if someone wants?

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Have anyone here a member of British pteridological society? I`m thinked to join, but i have to ask can i join it, becouse i live in Finland? How it work?

I joined the BPS in January. I emailed to ask if I could submit the membership form by email, and also if I could pay with PayPal. I then scanned and sent the membership form by email, and received a PayPal invoice. No trouble at all. Perhaps because I mentioned that I was interested in the spore exchange, I received the 2012 spore list by email shortly afterwards.

If I've understood correctly they only send out spores in March/April, so this is the right time to join.

I have some spare Pellaea viridis spores that you can have for free, send me a message if you're interested.

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Have anyone here a member of British pteridological society? I`m thinked to join, but i have to ask can i join it, becouse i live in Finland? How it work?

Thanks for the list johns! Maybe in summer i can change spores if someone wants?

The BPS is open to international subscriptions.

BPS Website here.

Edited by Ordovic
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  • 8 months later...

Hi!

Can someone put pics for his ferns to this topic? It can give inspiration to others. I can put later pics for my indoor ferns. Outdoor ferns... Finlands weather, ferns are little bad, but i can look if i find summer photos.

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  • 1 month later...

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