Runners vs Clumpers...

[pokenei]

Ferns, just like bamboo, there're clumpers and runners.

[zxylene]

I love the fern in the first pic what is it? And the second pic white bleeding hearts? I want some or is that just the lighting? I can't wait I'm going to look for different types of bleeding hearts. As it is one of my fav plants and they grow like crazy here.

[zxylene]

Wow they come in yellow, pink red and white. I need to find a place to get some.

To keep on subject. Running maples they are all over the yard and the clumping group together in the gutters and ditches.

[canadianplant]

Im petty sure the first pic is of "Japenese painted fern" , one of the most colourful ferns. Theyve survived here for 3 years. They seem to die down with too much summer sun/heat. Oddly enough, they are in the same bed as my bleeding hearts ( I can think of 3 or 4 kinds, regular, "Fern leaf", white, and I think there is a dwarf.

[pokenei]

1st photo is a Japanese Painted Fern as said, along the white Bleeding Heart, yes. This is year 3 for the Fern. Slugs and bugs have limited its growth. I didn't plan on putting the Bleeding Heart and the fern together. I just happened to have a pink bleeding heart already planted at one end of the bed, I thought I could balance it out by putting a white one at the other end. In between, I have ferns and Delphiniums which are now about to flower. I'll have some photos up later when they do. At the center of the bed is a spot reserved for the Spectabilis bamboo which I plan to get next month.

I forgot what the 2nd fern was, but it could grow up to 3 feet tall.

The last one is a Lady Fern and is definitively a runner. She can run up to a few feet per year. But instead of rhizomes, she sends out what looks like snake heads. It appears that new ferns can only grow from the snake heads, unlike bamboo where any node on a rhizome can sprout new plants. It is quite common to see the snake heads slider up and down near the soil surface. If you sever the head, then I think the "snake" is doomed.

ps. These are all common plants at my local nurseries/retailers.

[needmore]

Im petty sure the first pic is of "Japenese painted fern" , one of the most colourful ferns. Theyve survived here for 3 years. They seem to die down with too much summer sun/heat. Oddly enough, they are in the same bed as my bleeding hearts ( I can think of 3 or 4 kinds, regular, "Fern leaf", white, and I think there is a dwarf.

You must have some other thing going on with yours, my painted ferns handle our summers just fine, I even recently transplanted one into full sun out of curiosity, but the shadier sited ones never seem to have a problem with our summers.

[canadianplant]

Im petty sure the first pic is of "Japenese painted fern" , one of the most colourful ferns. Theyve survived here for 3 years. They seem to die down with too much summer sun/heat. Oddly enough, they are in the same bed as my bleeding hearts ( I can think of 3 or 4 kinds, regular, "Fern leaf", white, and I think there is a dwarf.

You must have some other thing going on with yours, my painted ferns handle our summers just fine, I even recently transplanted one into full sun out of curiosity, but the shadier sited ones never seem to have a problem with our summers.

Ill clarify a bit more. THe bleeding hearts were shaded by the caragana. THe painted ferns got 5 hr of direct sun. Also for some reason the spots theyre in, is dry. If anything, the dryness got em, but id say its safe to assume the sun didnt help either way.

For curiosities sake, what time of year do they die down there? Is it with frost?

[pokenei]

I think these ferns should be able handle light frost just fine so they're usually one of the last to die.
The bleeding hearts however are more unpredictable. Some years they grow well, while other years they seem to stop growing and begin wilting as soon as they've finished flowering.

[needmore]

Never paid attention the frost thing...

[moriphen]

I have 2 Japanese Holly ferns (Cyrtomium falcatum) in my yard that are leaf hardy through our winters. Gets along quite well with the other clumping bamboo's. Bonus for being a commonly available fern.

[canadianplant]

Is it C falcatum, or C fortunei? Falcatum is hardy to zone 8, while fortunei is hardy to zone 5 or 6....

[moriphen]

Is it C falcatum, or C fortunei? Falcatum is hardy to zone 8, while fortunei is hardy to zone 5 or 6....

Without a doubt Cyrtomium falcatum, its a introduced wild species in the state of New Jersey http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CYFA2. In addition I'd say its winter root hardy to around 0º F and frond hardy to around 8-10º F, so most years at some point in the winter it dies back to the ground only to come up with new fronds during the month of April.

[needmore]

Mine is more green and thus less mauve than the photo - does that suggest a particular cultivar?

[moriphen]

This is one of my Cyrtomium falcatum, note the dark glossy leaves.