Dividing Japanese painted ferns?

disneynut1977 ~ Melissa

16 years ago

I have fallen in love with the japanese painted ferns. The whole back of my house is part/shade-full shade (2-3 hrs filtered sun depending on time of year) and I have never been a fan of shade plants, except bleeding hearts until I saw a painted fern. For my budget right now they are out of my price range considering I would need more than a few. My hubby and I were at our local Home depot pricing wood for our new front porch and I decided to walk through what was left of the shrubbery outside. Wouldn't you know I came across 8 3 gallon pots stuffed with painted ferns at half off ($5 a pot) and it even looked like they had been kept out of the sun (saw some a fews months earlier there and they were scorched). I was so happy. My hubby is there today getting our main posts for our porch and I asked him to pick up the 3 best looking and largest of the bunch for me and made it clear he wasn't allowed to come home without them. I'm hoping he surprises me with 4 of them. My question is when I saw them yesterday, these 3 gallon pots really are stuffed and I could seperate the smaller ones. How should I plant these? Should I water the area very well and seperate the ferns and put them in? Do they like the area very wet to start off or just moderate watering? Any help would be great. I plan on mulching with natural red cedar mulch. I do know to mark the area due to that they come up later in spring.

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Comments (5)

razorback33
16 years ago
Late spring is usually the best time to divide JPF, but can be divided in the fall also. A 3G plant from a nursery most likely contains several individual plants, as they are usually grown from tissue culture plugs. In any case, they are easily divided, usimg a sharp knife to sever the connecting rhizomes. Be sure that each division has some roots and a crown or growth point, with some foliage.
They prefer a moist, but well drained location and slightly acidic soil. Prepare the planting holes by mixing organic compost or peat moss with the soil. They prefer shade or a partially shaded location. In your Zone, they will tolerate more sunlight, than in the southern US. Best color is developed with a few hours of sun each day.
Wait until the soil temperature cools down, usually after frost, to mulch. Mulching now will keep soil warm and promote growth, when they should be preparing to go dormant.
You can fertilize in the spring, using a 2-3" layer of compost or a timed release chemical fertilizer at Â½ the recommeded rate for perennials.
They thrive when supplied with adequate moisture and high humidity. After the first year of growth, you can again divide them in the spring, which is the easiest way to generate more plants! After a few years, you will begin to see sporelings appear all around the area. They may or maynot be an exact replica of the parent plant. In any case, they will be an attractive addition.
Good luck and enjoy :-)
Rb

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Painted Fern
disneynut1977 ~ Melissa
Original Author
16 years ago
My hubby didn't get them for me, so we went back the next day. I broke apart the garden that lines the back of my house(didn't take long, I added a alot of maure and other stuff just last summer). After dividing the ferns I had 10 total, most are still a decent size. I'm hoping 2 years from now the color really starts to show. I mulched with the natural cedar chips I had left from this season. The question I have now though is I have an extended roof on both the front and back of my house and I have gutters. So it can get very dry next to the foundation (I did plant 1 1/2' from the foundation, but the roof still extends over the ferns), I plan on watering the rest of whats left for our season, but next spring should I consider soaker hoses for the back with the ferns?
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georgia-rose
16 years ago
A soaker hose or drip irrigation would probably be wise.
JP Ferns require moist soil to perform well.
Some of mine are in locations where the soil becomes dry during the summer, when little rainfall occurs. They wilt severely and finally go dormant, unless I water them frequently.
It doesn't require much water for each fern to keep them well irrigated. About 2Â½ gal. per fern/per week should be sufficient. (assuming a 2 ftÂ²area for each fern, that would be the equivalent of about I" of rainfall).
Good Gardening! :
waplummer
16 years ago
I have some that have spored themselves into one of my rock walls. They get no supplemental watering and if they have had a good spring and early summer rains, they may dormant when it gets dry, but they survive nicely.
ziyouzizai
3 years ago
Hi Melissa, I wonder how your JPFs are now given 12 years had passed? I have a dozen or so growing underneath a white pine tree for about 3 years now but they do not seem to yield sporelings. The patch seem to be of similar size but the individual plants are a little bigger. They are mulched by the fallen pine needles and every Spring, they do emerge. However, it seems like they are really slow growing for me at least. I was thinking to dig them up and split them into smalle chunks and replant now. Our weather here in Chicago is still in the 40s now. Or should I leave them alone and wait until the fall?