On Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:05:59 GMT, "long eddy" wrote:

Hello all,
We are thinking of purchasing a type of fern to use as groundcover for our
back yard.

Currently our back yard gets plenty of shade from two very large maple trees
close to our farmhouse.

Most of the ground does not have any grass and is weeds, some tree roots,
earth and moss.

We would like to plant about 10 to 20 small ferns in the fall.

Please advise if the type of fern below will take in this environment.

Athyrium-niponicum

Japanese-Painted-Fern

Many thanks,
Eddy



Hard to say. I planted 5 different ferns in my shade garden and
wooded area. Two kinds eventually died, one is just existing, and two
other kinds took off and grew so well that I divided them and created
a groundcover. One of these stays green during the winter, the other
(giant) fern dies back to the winter ground to return in early spring.
My pachysandra, lily-of-the-valley, and English ivy have grown into
very nice ground covers too, although the deer keep trimming back the
ivy.