Wild Ginger
$15.00The native ground cover for dry shade under maples, where almost nothing else will go.
Ostrich Fern
Matteuccia struthiopteris
$17.001 gal28 on the bench
Fiddleheads in May, a metre and a half of green architecture by July.
- ONTARIO NATIVE
- DEER RESISTANT
We don't sell online — plants travel badly and we'd rather you saw what you're buying. Ring 705-555-0126 and we'll hold it at the till for 48 hours.
About this plant
The fern that produces the fiddleheads you buy in April. You can harvest them from your own plants — take no more than half the crowns from any one clump, and cook them properly, because raw fiddleheads will make you ill.
In moist shade it will run. That is either the feature or the problem depending on your garden; in a damp corner nobody is using it is the most satisfying plant here.
It goes dormant and scruffy by late August in a dry year. Plan for something else to carry that spot into autumn.
Looking after it
- Water
- Wants steady moisture. Will run harder if wet
- Soil
- Rich, damp, high in organic matter
- Spread
- Aggressive in ideal conditions — site accordingly
- Harvest
- Fiddleheads in early May; cook 15 minutes
Plant it with
Hosta 'Halcyon'
$18.00The best blue hosta there is, and thick enough in the leaf that slugs mostly give up.