Woodwardia radicans

Description

Woodwardia radicans is one of those plants that once seen you just have to have. My first experience of the ‘Giant Chain Fern’ or ‘Walking Fern’ as it is sometimes called was of a clump growing on St Marys in the Isles of Scilly many years ago, almost feral it was mooching alongside a verge as I walked past. Stopped in my tracks I had to have one, obviously I won’t say how I obtained my first specimen but the clue is in the name, Walking fern, as fortunately it produces a perfectly formed minature young fern at the tip of each leaf ready to root and spread the plant along.

So I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying this fern for years, sometimes frustrating as it is only really hardy in a mild sheltered garden often hit hard by the unpredicable chills we often get here in the South East. Hence I always have a few growing in pots kept in the polytunnel each winter just in case. If you have a mild garden with a shady spot and humus rich soil ( add lots of good compost) Woodwardia radicans will reward your efforts by producing fabulous evergreen clumps of lush green arching fronds up to 150cm long. Imagine a tree fern without a trunk growing in a jumbled choas carpeting the ground slowly wandering around the garden…You know you want one!

Not always in stock just a few each year, we do our best. Please ask