We’ve mostly gotten enough rain for the ferns. There are two very different ferns in this yard: the lady fern is small and well behaved, while the ostrich fern is big and…enthusiastic.
Lady Fern
Last year’s leaves that are mulching the rain garden are a key to this fern’s size. Each of these small, erupting ferns could just about be covered by the oak leaf in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph below.
By mid-May, the plants are a much grassier green, but still light. They are a great contrasting color and texture.
The lady ferns seem to stay nice all the way though the growing season. Being in a rain garden may be what makes that possible.
Ostrich Ferns
This year, the late winter display from the ostrich ferns consisted of fertile fronds.
Within a week and a half, fiddleheads appeared.
In another week and a half, these ferns look like what many people expect ferns to look like. They are 1–1 ½ feet tall, and strongly vertical. It does not look like it now, but in another week these ferns will really cast too much shade for the crested irises, unless they are at the edge of the bed where some sun will hit for a few hours midday as summer approaches.
Another week passes, and the ostrich ferns are over a foot taller and filling in all the available space. The plants have taken on a shape closer to an ice cream cone standing on its tip.
These ferns will look nice as long as the water holds out. By August or September, this fern bed is usually more or less flattened and a little scruffy.