Back in May of 2019 I put together a planting I referred to as the "fern bowl"—kind of like a fern table, except it wasn't on a flat surface but rather in a large, shallow bowl. Here's a photo from that post (which you can read here)...![]()
Three years in and that planting needed a refresh. Thankfully all the important players were still looking good, but I could tell they weren't thriving any longer. Plus I was kinda itching to use the bowl for a few of my smaller bromeliads and an expanding collection of cryptanthus—and so I did, and I love the way it turned out.
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So, what did I do with the ferns from the bowl? Well, last spring something strange happened to the huge podophyllum clump that used to fill this stock tank and they just sulked (see how fabulous they once were here). Unfortunately they weren't anymore robust this spring...
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So I moved the sad plants that remained elsewhere in the garden and prepped the tank for new occupants.
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I needed a background to build off of and so I buried this section of I-beam I happened to have in the garage (doesn't everybody?) and also planted a chunk of driftwood I hauled home from our last trip to the beach.
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It's just begging for something to work it's way up those "branches" don't you think?
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All planted up!
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Truth be told, I planted and stepped back and thought "I need some metal in that corner" (to help hide the awkward meeting of the garage and fence). I immediately thought of these two pieces over near the tallest palm in the garden, but they're a little too small—and being used as trellising.
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They both came to be mine thanks to Alan Bertin, the Mardi Gras Gardener.
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Alan picked them up at BBC Steel (which I wrote about here), so the next morning I had free I was off to BBC to see what I could find that would fit easily in that corner...
I do like sticking to a theme, in this case circles. But you pay by the pound here and this number was so heavy I could barely drag it over to take this photo.
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Lots of fun circles here, but these panels were way too big.
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Ditto for those leaf shape panels.
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I don't need more cylinders, but these were mighty attractive.
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Tempting to have a seat and mull over the options.
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In the end I went back to revisit these really big circles cut into thin metal sheets—easy to move and cheaper too! I went with the two in the middle, the shorter piece with 8 holes and the one with 4 holes and a solid side.
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Here they are in the corner...
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Hard to see in a photo...
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But providing a nice back-drop in-real-life. I spray them down when I'm watering, hoping to speed along the rusting process.
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So let's look at the plants! Not all of these were moved over from the fern bowl, I'd had this project in mind for awhile and so had been "collecting" plants.
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Pyrrosia sheareri along with some black mondo grass—these were in the fern bowl.
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Asarum maximum 'Ling Ling' also from the fern bowl planting.
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More Pyrrosia sheareri, this from Cistus Nursery.
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Asplenium trichomanes
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Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron'—I am very excited about this plant being elevated and thus easier than my current plant is to photograph when the blooms show up in the springtime.
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Pyrrosia polydactyla
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Pyrrosia sp. SEH#12547, purchased at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden.
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Final shot, you might remember this pair from my haul post after the trip up north in June; Rhododendron 'Strawberry Sorbet' and a syneilesis hybrid from my friend Camille's garden.
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Although I'm just finally sharing it now, this planting all happened earlier in July. Thank goodness things had a couple weeks to settle in, as we're currently in the midst of six+ days in the high 90's and low 100's. I'm babying this planting and hoping everything makes it.
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