Miscanthus Giganteus

This little appreciated grass is becoming more commonly available now. It towers between 8 and 10 feet and looks great as a backdrop screen or a corner covering specimen. Two drawbacks however... first off it will die back in the Winter which means your backdrop disappears or the ugly corner you were covering re-emerges. It is also quite slow to spread. When you buy it you normally have 2 or 3 strands to play with. Each strand will duplicate a new shoot close to the parent, so it will be a fair few years before it looks like much you could appreciate. If you can stick it out then once it does bunch up there is no comparison in the grass world for the simplistic architectural beauty.

Like most grasses there is no need for any Winter protection. Just let it die back and chop back the dead strands in the Spring when you see new shoots emerging.

Polystichum Proliferum - A Stumpy Tree Fern

Not quite a tree fern, more of a stump fern :) This guy grows under the feet of Australian tree ferns and will eventually grow a short dark brown stump, from which will emerge loads and loads of very dark green, stiff fronds.

The interesting thing about this guy is that if you pin one or more of the leaves to the ground a baby one will grow from the tip. This means that you can fairly quickly cover ground with these guys. Keep the frond(s) pinned down until the baby takes root.

They should be grown in damp shaded areas. They are 100% imprevious to anything the Winter will throw at them. Their fronds last all year round and throughout the Summer it will grace you with 20 or 30 new fronds. I really love this fern. It ticks all the boxes and should be in everyone's garden.

Gunnera Manicata

This bog plant from Africa is a real beast once it establishes itself. If you want to see a full sized one head over to Tatton Park’s gardens in mid Summer. It takes time to get there, but within 5 years you should have something which stands an easy 5 or 6 feet into the air.

Gunnera is related to the Rhubarb. Unlike the rhubarb it has very stiff leaves with a weird nobbly texture to them. This nobbliness extends down the huge stems to its massive corm. These nobbles seem to work together to channel rainfall down to the corm. It’s really wonderful to watch, as this technology even works when you take your hose and spray underneath the leaves!!!!

Gunnera can take strong sunlight, but may burn around the edges if it is dehydrated. It will need good sunlight if you want massive leaves. Keep Gunnera in the shade and you will get smaller, darker leaves which stay near the ground. Each year it will send out massive cone-like flowers which don’t look too pretty, but add to the jungle effect of the plant.

The leaves will melt at -2c, but this is not a problem as corm plants act like bulb plants in that they suck the foliage energy back into their centre, so the leaves would die back anyhow! The corm can take -10c easily unprotected, but if you are paranoid you can fold the mushy old leaves back over the corm to hide it from settling frost.

This is a good choice for the massive jungle look, but you really need loads of room to let it do its stuff. Shop around though as you can get good sized ones for good money. Look at the size of the corm rather than the leaves. Leaf size is dependent on time of year, water and sun.

Calathea – Perfect Fernery Choice

There are absolutely loads of variations of Calathea. Some grow low, some shoot to 3 feet. They are primarily indoor plants, but there is no reason why you cannot use them outside in the milder weather.

Calathea require low light. Too much and they will shrivel. They also like humidity so the best place for them is in a fernery setting... with your tree ferns for example.

They are pretty cheap houseplants, so you can buy a whole bunch of them and pot them up together in a standard plastic plant pot. Then dig a hole in your fernery, put some gravel or wood chip into the bottom of the hole, then sink the pot into it. Simple as that and an instant interest among your fern collection.

Calathea spread underground, so once they get too big break them off into clumps and start all over again. I have also noticed that from time to time the whole plant will appear to die off. I have no idea why, but give it time and new leaves will emerge and it will look as good as new.
Remember to bring them in for Winter :D

Cyathea Australis

Imagine the trunk of a Dicksonia combined with the fronds of a Cyathea. This pretty much sums up the Cyathea Australis. It is a curious fern with its main identifying feature being the slimness of the frond stems. Loads of these spring out from the centre of the trunk in all directions during the Summer. The fronds do tend to dry up easily around the edges though for some reason no matter where I try and place them. Not sure why yet?

This fern is supposed to be Winter hardy to -7c. I have not tested this yet, though I know they do remain undamaged at -4c. Some suppliers (usually online ones) tend to sell these as severed trunks. Try to avoid these as they will last that year and not recover for the next year. This applies to all Cyatheas and some Dicksonia species. Also, some Cyathea require the nutrients stored within exiting fronds to create new fronds.

Again frondless Cyathea will usually struggle to survive kicking out one or two fronds in the first year and then perishing due to starvation. Fortnately C. Australis doesn’t mind being frondless. However watch you don’t get conned !!!

Cyathea Cooperi

This is a fast growing tree fern which forms a slim trunk covered in white hairs. It produces large fronds which are shaped like huge paddles. It looks very attractive sticking out of an area planted with ground ferns. It can take some good sun, and it appears to prefer it like this. Too much damp seems to rot it’s new fronds before they have a chance to unfurl.

Like Dicksonia Squarrosa the Cooperi tends to sprout new shoots from its base (roots around the base). I have seen snails attack these so watch out!!!

The only real downer of Cooperi is that it really hates the Winter. -2c will damage the fronds, browning them off on their tops. Not much more than this will kill it altogether (-5c). You should really take it into shelter for the Winter, such as a greenhouse, and heat it or cover it with fleece. I have found that the fleece can rot away the white hairs covering its trunk, but it doesn’t seem to mind this.

Cooperi is a difficult fern to get right. It doesn’t like the cold, it doesn’t like too much damp and it dries out fast in the sun. It is really one for a specialist collector.

Dicksonia Fibrosa

This tree fern is becoming more common. It has a darker, more fibrous trunk which is kind of squashy when pressed. The fronds are shorter and darker in colour than Antarctica. The fronds don’t break as easy either. However, they are slower growing, fronding only once or twice a year and not loads of fronds like Antartica either.

A real positive point is that they are far more hardier to the Winter elements than Antarctica. I have had a few of these sitting in -10c without any frond damage whatsoever. Like Antarctica they are shipped around as bare trunks, but they are a little more stressed like this and may not revive, so try and get a rooted one if you can.
Again, they look nice in groups, but big ones are hard to find these days and are pretty expensive. Some places sell Fibrosa as Antarctica, so keep a look out as you may get yourself a bargain... the biggest sign being the squashy trunk :D