Ferns: Houseplant of the Month for February

While everything is still bare outside you can create a green oasis indoors with ferns’ green feathers in all shapes and sizes.

Botanical beauties
If you’re looking for a mindful experience, nothing is as beautiful as a rolled fern leaf that unfurls over a couple of days into an elegant long leaf that looks like a green feather. Ferns are available with dense leaves, with round leaves, with curls and with spikes. Place different species together and you’ll soon have a botanical collection where there’s lots to see without greenery dominating your entire interior.

These are the stars for February!
Whether your homestyle is traditional, natural or designer, there are ferns to match. Ferns come in a variety of colours – from dark green to greyish – and virtually all have long, slender feathery leaves. A couple of ferns do look a bit different. Hence Aglaomorpha coronans is a majestic badass with a large, coarse leaves. The tree fern (Dicksonia) has disguised itself as a palm tree, thanks to a trunk with a pale green crown of fern leaves. And the bird’s nest fern (Asplenium) is very distinctive, with stylised green leaves without fringes.

Living history
Ferns were primaeval inhabitants of the Earth; fossil remains have been found from some 420 million years ago. They were once water plants which involved into spore plants on the land. There are 40,000 different species: virtually all of them herbaceous plants that do not stick to the standard structure (root – stem – leaf) but idiosyncratically feature aerial roots, pseudo-trunks, disc leaves and other highly original components. That evolution has helped ferns to survive, makes them a highly varied group where there is always something new to discover.

Care

Ferns likes a light spot, but not in full sun.
Do not pour water into the plant but onto the soil, and ensure that the soil is always damp.
Ferns do well in a spot with high humidity like the kitchen or the bathroom.
If you’re placing your fern in a room with dry air, place the planter in an attractive bowl with water that can evaporate around the plant.
A bit of food once a week keeps a fern in peak condition.
Spray, mist, steam: ferns adore them all.

Clean air, beautiful skin
Ferns in the home fit with the growing interest in a simpler and more sustainable life. Ferns help to purify the air in your home. When they get enough moisture themselves they also help keep the humidity in your home healthy, so that you’re less likely to bothered by dry skin. When correctly styled they can bring the clean, sleek feeling of a laboratory into your home. For example, place them in water in recycled glass jam jars for an attractive transparent effect, or choose identical earthenware pots in black or white to give an attractive minimalist effect.

The bushy Boston fern is a particularly popular hanging plant: up high it has plenty of room to grow with less risk of damaged leaf tips. If you prefer a more stylised look, the elkhorn fern is a good hanging plant for you.

Trivia

Carrying some fern seeds with you is said to help you work twenty times as hard.
Maoris use silver ferns to find their way in the dark: they reflect the light of the moon and stars.
Ferns symbolise sincerity and purity.

For more information see: www.thejoyofplants.co.uk

Publicado el: 29 enero 2019