Surprisingly, I was early for my latest shopping adventure at Garden Fever (my neighborhood nursery)—their COVID shopping restrictions require you to schedule a timed appointment. As I stood out front and waited for my turn, my eyes looked over this container planting on the sidewalk. Something unusual caught my eye at about midway, just above the rim of the planter...![]()
This! There was a fern with tiny fern babies along the center of a frond!
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It's Polystichum setiferum, Divisilobum Group—commonly called the divided soft shield fern or regionally know as Alaska fern. How do I know this? Well the fine person working the door at Garden Fever looked it up for me, but in my research I couldn't find mention of the little baby ferns so I doubted the ID and emailed one of the owners, Lori Vollmer, to ask. She emailed Richie Steffen (President of the Hardy Fern Foundation) and he confirmed, Polystichum setiferum, Divisilobum Group! It can vary in appearance, and is a Great Plant Pick. I do have one of these and now I will be eagerly watching for tiny fern babies.
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So since we're talking about Garden Fever I wanted to mention their 17th Annual Spring Book Soirée is coming up this weekend! Of course instead of being an in-person event this year, they're taking it online. Tom Fischer, of Timber Press, will be talking about new gardening titles, and I will be giving a short talk on Fearless Gardening—it's going to be a great time! All signs point to tickets being sold out by the time this post goes up, but if I hear otherwise I will definitely post a link here. If you're interested in attending you might just shoot them an email to see if there are any spots left.
Weather Diary, Feb 2: Hi 49, Low 41/ Precip .40
Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at The Creative Flux. All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.