Re: San Francisco Flower Show and a fern

At 05:53 PM 3/20/00 -0800, you wrote:
Thanks to the northern California branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society for a beautiful and interesting display at the Flower and Garden Show! I've kept the plant list in hopes that I can find some of the plants used in the display for my garden. In particular: Phlebodium aureum, a rabbit's foot fern that certainly didn't look at all aureum, but rather a matte blue. Really, really matte. With flat, I mean really flat leaves. Did Sean perhaps cut the leaves out of card stock? If not, where can I find this plant?

Hi Kay -

Thanks for the mention of the Garden Show display - we're so glad it is over, but it received enthusiastic response and we will presumably get many new members from this event!

The form of Phlebodium aureum featured, is my own plant, which I dig from a neighbor's yard (at their insistence) when they left the area.  She had apparently been growing it for decades, and was unsure from where it originated.  It had been happily creeping around under low shrubs, in the high shade of the trees which are on that property.  The leaves are somewhat smaller than most forms I've seem in cultivation, and more 'flat' as you state.  The few rhizomes I dug and potted quickly grew into the thick mass you saw in only about 18 months.  I plan to eventually plant it under some taller plants that will shade them from the hot afternoon sun in my garden, but so far it has been happy even with occasionally going very dry.  With enough moisture-retentive humus at its feet, it doesn't seem to mind.  I really enjoy the color of the fronds, and the quitely subtropical look.

I've placed some information about this plant, along with a photo, on the web site:
http://www.support.net/Medit-Plants/plants/Phlebodium.aureum.html

Since you're in town, I might be able to get you a start if you want.

Regards,
Sean O.



Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@groupmail.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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