Planting Bird's Nest Ferns in Outdoor Containers
Planting continues in front of my Winter House carport - this time, with four bird's nest ferns.
A couple of years ago, my friend and owner of Luppino Landscaping and Masonry LLC, Carmine Luppino, gifted me with four beautiful antique ornamental urns. They look so beautiful on the stone wall outside my carport. This week my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, potted them up with bird's nest ferns, Asplenium nidus - those interesting plants with long, erect, spoon-shaped, bright green fronds that rise from a central rosette. I try to vary the plantings in my outdoor containers every year - these ferns were just perfect for the vessels.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- These containers look great sitting on this low stone wall leading up to my carport. Each of the four round lead antique planters is decorated with cheerful repeating sunbursts. The sunburst is actually an ancient pagan symbol. It is mostly seen as an ornamental motif, carved, painted or inlaid, with straight or jagged rays radiating from the center.
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- Each container is about two feet in diameter and about 18 to 20 inches high. Each vessel also has drainage holes at the bottom.
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- Ryan went down to one of my tropical hoop houses to select the bird’s nest ferns that would work best in the planters. They had to fit the containers and be pretty similar in size.
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- The bird’s nest fern is so named because the center of the plant resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern. Here, one can see the new fronds growing from the center rosette.
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- On the undersides of mature bird’s nest fern fronds are these brown lines. These are harvest spores.
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- Back at the carport, Ryan places the ferns in the pots for planting. He also turns them, so the best side of each plant faces the carriage road.
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- To protect the fragile pots, I like to line them with black weed cloth or black garbage bags. Ryan places a big sheet of the plastic into the pot…
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- … and then cuts it to size. This plastic will later be tucked into the pot, so it is not visible.
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- Ryan pokes holes in the plastic over the holes in the container for good drainage.
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- Next he fills the bottom of the planter with soil mix. We’re using nutrient-rich compost made right here at the farm.
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- Meanwhile, these ferns are ready for slightly larger containers, so Ryan puts soil into these plastic pots. He sprinkles a generous amount of Osmocote fertilizer and mixes it well. The prills coat a core of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The resin-coating is made from linseed oil and as the plant’s root system takes-up nutrition from the soil, it also takes up the needed nutrients from the Osmocote.
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- Ryan then removes the fern from its old plastic pot and gives it a quick inspection. The root ball is quite moist – it is a sign of good maintenance and watering.
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- Repotting is a good time to check any plant for damaged, unwanted or rotting leaves or pests that may be hiding in the soil. Ryan scarifies the root ball just a bit to encourage new growth and places it into its new container.
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- Next, Ryan backfills with more soil. Bird’s nest ferns do well with watering about once a week. To be sure, one should feel the top few inches of soil. If the top two-inches are dry then the plant needs water. Below the top few inches should remain moist, but not soggy. And it should never dry out thoroughly between waterings.
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- Once a plant is in its new plastic pot, Ryan places the pot into the container to ensure it is at the proper height – it should be positioned at the same height it was in its original pot. Planting the pot inside the container makes it easier come fall – the pot can just be removed with the plant intact.
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- He backfills the ornamental planter up to just under the rim, so when it is watered, it does not overflow with soil falling out.
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- Lastly, Ryan top dresses the pot with some mulch and taps down of the soil lightly to ensure there is good contact with the plant.
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- Even when grown in optimal conditions bird’s nest ferns grow slowly, only about two to six inches per year. Fronds eventually reach a maximum size of about three feet long, with plant diameter maxing out at about three feet wide.
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- Here is a top view of the four potted bird’s nest ferns – these will receive medium to bright indirect light. These plants do not do too well in direct light as it will burn its fronds.
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- These ferns sit under the light shade of my catalpa trees, or cigar trees, Catalpa speciosa, named because of its long cigar-like seed pods. The ferns will do wonderfully here until they are removed from the pots and returned to their designated greenhouses for the next cold season.
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