Fern Kingdom

The Ferns are making a comeback in my garden.

Practically my garden is totally green.

Green had started dominated all over again after I started gardening.
I guess its a guy thing - to consider foliage as an attraction
(Except for girls - flowers fall in their category,

but of course - we can beg to differ) 

Anyway, the Long Green Cascading Leaves speaks volume to me.
Shade of course and the canopy style when in the tropicals..
That is the feel of extended feel of layers and layers of greens..
Just I like it - calling it a garden.

I forgot to mention
That in the big picture - its actually a Vertical Garden
The whole mass is Orchids, 

followed by Bromeliads, Hoya, Dischidia and finally ferns filling in the blanks.

And that's how they made the come back.

They easily tuck in between the structure.
The root mass tightens and secure the whole Vertical Garden from collapsing,

especially from material where the whole thing could had rotten over the years.

And they do great keeping the equilibrium perfect.
Great shade from the sun for the orchids - regulate excess water off from them in case any plants are suffering from over-watering.
And if there is not enough water - these will show signs of withering and will comeback immediately after watering - sort of a visual warning.   

They are indeed beautiful, this one is leathery
Quite durable and intricate in its design.

One thing for sure - if they are totally ignored 

They can disappear.
I had lost few species - the sensitive ones

Not all of them are hardy.

Finally, this fall under the sensitive category:

The Maiden Hair Fern
They do well near a water resource area
Not too much water and not too dry - a right balance ensures a good success with this one.

Tropical Vertical Gardening Experiment

I got inspired by The Rainforest Garden in the idea of setting up a vertical landscape garden. It was a situation when you got lots of plants but lacking display space. (too many plants and too less of a garden space would create a messy, unkempt - jungle look in the garden)

And I was also in a situation where I got everything under the sun theme and I need to focus with working out to bring the impact that I often look for - sort of create an ambiance where you feel good whenever you are in the garden (kind-a-feeling)

Yep, the ferns have to go. Its either throw away or give away situation. They don't fix well in my theme coloured garden. And so, this was a great idea of display. The good thing about ferns is they can really take the abuse. They can be over watered (but not water-logged) and would survive without soil. As you can see - the whole thing is a root-ball mass which easily fit into container spaced compartments.

I had set this up during the Chinese New Year holidays - its about a week now and they are doing fine. My greatest concern is that the whole soil & root mass might just flop & drop when watering. The other challenge is watering - too much water loosen the root support, lack of water dries up the leaves. The Bird Nest Fern are enjoying their new location as they sprout out new leaflets.

I had added Jewel of Opar in the selection to give some colour in the green selection and they simply look pretty good in the collection. The plants that are in this collection:

a) Bird Nest Fern
b) Drawf Petticoat Fern
c) Fluffy Ruffle Fern
d) Basket Plant
e) Jewel of Opar
f) Wandering Jew (Green Tradescantia)
g) Zebra Tradescantia
i) Joyweed

The most challenging moment is hammering the nails to support the wooden frame. It took awhile for me to handle the issue (guess I'm not good in being a carpenter) The wooden frame is actually a fruit crate. I had stapled a layer of plastic sheet to hold the soil and placed small containers to hold the root-ball mass inside them.
Sometimes, it is an issue of trial & error. And I foresee that eventually some species in this collection might overwhelm other species and that others might slowly disappear.

Of course - at the end of the day, it looked nothing like what the Rainforest Gardener proposed.
(lol) Well, I guess - it happens when you work with your own style and ideas. I wanted to use coconut shells and husk but it happened to be during the holiday season and getting them from a sundry shop is going to be a long wait (you can get all the husk & the shell for free as they are thrown away at the end of the day)

I have managed to really reset my garden during the whole Chinese New Year holiday week . It was also the issue of doing & setting a pot at a time, telling myself not to overwhelm and get up set or panic in seeing the whole mess. Amazingly I marvelled that I did manage to do some clearing work - doing little by little and eventually made some visible progress.
(I will upload my overall garden picture later)

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Wishing a Prosperous & a Garden Full of Overwhelming Beauty

to all who celebrate this Chinese New Year!

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How to Care & Cultivate Squirrel Foot Fern - Davallia trichomanoides

This particular type of fern is commonly known as Rabbit foot fern,
alternatively also known as Squirrel foot fern, Deer foot.. Bear foot..
These are Dacallia species which are very much like a weed growing everywhere rather than been cultivated as a prized fern collection.

Their difference are very much identified in their geographical location and the shape & co lour of their furry rhizome. The silvery white shade furry rhizome is known as Rabbit Foot Fern (Davallia Fejeensis) 

The Hare's Foot Fern, Black Rabbit's Foot Fern also known as Squirrel Foot Fern which has a brown to black shade rhizome. (Davallia trichomanoides)

This one is native here in Malaysia, it can be found everywhere.
(on tree barks, by the drain sides, even along wall cracks at the back of houses where it grows wildly)
These cut-ferns were often used for flower arrangements and these last very long almost 2 weeks in a cut form. Usually cut ferns withers within days but not this one.

How to Care for Squirrel Foot Fern

WATERING

This one is very hardy, it can handle infrequent watering as well as over-watering. 

Although - do be concerned with over-watering unless your medium you are using must be fast draining. The root-ball seemed to be like a strands of thick furry succulent type root system. These will trail and grow everywhere.

If the leaves turn yellow then it means it is receiving too much water and roots are starting to rot.

LIGHTING

These thrive in bright shaded areas similar like orchids and other epiphytes. Often these grow together side by side. Too much sun can burn the leaves.

MEDIUM

These ferns thrive with fast draining medium similar used for orchids.

Bark, wood chips, perlite, charcoal, sphagnum moss, coconut husk chips, and similar materials does very well for this fern medium.