Herself’s Houston Garden

I’ve grown staghorn ferns off and on as houseplants. When I went on a garden club garden tour in April I saw several growing in people’s gardens outside. Once settled in they will grown outside here. Some were mounted on boards and fences, I decided to try mine in a tree nook.

Staghorns produce two types of leaves: basal, and foliar. The basal (nest) fronds are the brown ones that the fern uses to hang onto something, foliar are the green fronds. The basal collects rain water and debri to break down and feed to the plant. The foliar fronds are the fertile ones and you’ll see spores appear on the fronds occasionally.

Place some moss or dirt between the basal frond and the mount. If the moss or soil fades away replace it with more.

Water when fronds are dry. The older fronds tolerate dry weather better than the younger ones.

Grow in part to full shade.

Protect from frost and freezing.

Native to Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. There are 16 known platycerium species all growing in temperate rain forests. The staghorns produce the two leaves.

Propagation is difficult, best done by division of pups from mother plant once it has its own basal leaves.

Due to their popularity they are disappearing from the rain forests making it all the more important to establish some plants here.

Cabbage Palm is rated for zones 9b to 11 so should do well here in Houston. It prefers light to full shade, slightly dry soil ( for a fern ) and should reach 3′ in height and 1′ across. Water is not a problem can adapt to moist or wet soil.

It is usually grown in baskets and is a fast growing fern. It is grown for its unusual shaped fronds. It can also be found growing in the nooks of live oaks.

Like rabbit’s foot fern it has creepers which are thick, these are covered in brown scales. I’ll add in a photo once they can be seen on this fern.

Scale can be a problem.

Propagation: Spreads by rhizomes.

Native to Florida, Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America

Wavey cloak is a smaller fern reaching about 12″ in height and about 12″ across. It is hardy 7a-10b so should do just fine here in Houston.

Unusual for a fern it can take full sun to light shade.

More information to follow as I find it or figure it out.

I brought this home from March Mart last year, thinking it was an Australian tree fern, but then it never got any taller. These things happen.

While it is not a fast growing fern it’s certainly been trouble free. It’s been stuck in a corner with little to no sun and moderately dry soil. Neither heat nor cold bothers it, though I’m sure it’d be happier with a bit more sun and water.

It is a large fern and striking. It’s about 3′ from tip to tip right now. In time it will get small plants on the end of its fronds like a spider plant. I’ll post photos once she makes some babies for me. I’ve never known a fern to do this so I’m really looking forward to it.

Propagate by division or spores or by the small plants that grow on the end of the leaves.