For The Love Of Ferns

As a Botanist, I never thought all that much about specialising in a particular group of plants (e.g. mosses - Bryology). Maybe this is something people do later. Besides, my area is more the edible and medicinal plants, so by choosing a group, I'd limit my area. In any case, I believe that it's handy to have a broad spectrum of interests, as they are kind of something you can tend to all year round. For many amateurs of wild flowers - Summer is the best season. Vernals and Seaweeds - Spring. Trees - Autumn. I guess my centre of passion follows like this with the seasons, lately it has been evergreens - since the deciduous have all now lost their leaves.

So anyway, last January I was 'obsessed' (as I was told) with ferns. And now I feel like I am coming full circle to that, as I took up an interest in them again in the last few days. I guess many of them don't really have a time of year (Bracken dies down in the winter, however). Anyway, as a spontaneous idea came to me, I collected a few very common ferns growing in the wild not far away and made a fern bed at the back of my garden:

Fern bed against wall with Ivy

So far I have 3 fern species in it, the Rusty-Back being the most frequent, I have 2 Hart's-Tongue ferns (left and centre-back), and a Maidenhair Spleenwort (centre front). I also stuck in a few heathers (Ling) and a few herbs to make it more mixed. Everything I got in nature. I really enjoyed doing it.

There are some ferns which are rare and protected, such as the Killarney fern. These should not be collected! Even though the ferns I collected are very common, I try to follow the rule of thirds - whereby I divide the rootstock, taking about 2 thirds. Since the third that is left behind is in it's natural habitat, so it won't suffer transplant shock - thus it will very likely recover.

Whilst I was studying ferns last January I made a mind-map of what is to be found in Ireland to get a clear picture. More than I expected, it turns out. Anyway, I'll put the mind-map on the download page, for anyone who wants to take a look (however, I you it uses primarily Latin names).