Ferns & Wind

Wendy - I don't know where you are gardening but in general  and
wherever you are ferns and winds tend not to mix - and the colder the
winds the less the mixture works. If you get cold winter winds on
evergreen fern fronds, you tend to get everbrown fronds, instead. Not
much fun. If the cold winter winds are salt-laden, as mine are, so
much the worse. In many ways my garden is ideal for ferns (damp,
humid, mild, cool, with naturally heavy but not waterlogged soil) but
I have to be very wary about where I put them. There's less of a
problem, as Trevor suggested, with deciduous ferns which die down
before the coldest winds arrive - but then you have the problem of
large chunks of bare earth during the winter. Some ferns are more
resistant to winds than others (things like Trevor's Hart's Tongues,
for instance, do quite well) but to the best of my knowledge no fern
really enjoys being wind-blown. I wouldn't myself think they were a
good choice for a wind-tunnel. Sorry not to be more encouraging.
Tim Longville
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