We have had a few lovely sunny days here at the Beth Chatto Gardens and spring feels like it’s nearly here.
When we propagate, most of our material is taken from plants either growing in pots or found on our stockbeds. But to propagate Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern/shuttlecock fern), I was sent to a shady, damp border in the garden to lift and remove stolons.
It is an exciting scenario for those of us who work on the stock beds where plants are grown in regimented rows. When we lift plants from the garden, the scene has to be left as natural as can be, as though we haven’t even been there.
Mattueccia reproduce by sending out lateral stolons to form new crowns, and as their roots are fairly shallow, they are easy to lift and propagate by removing offsets to pot up or replant. Stolons look almost like black liquorice laces creeping horizontally away from the parent plant.
In late winter, the dark-brown fertile fronds produced last autumn are still standing upright and architectural among highly scented sarcococca shrubs and delicate snowdrops. Soon the characteristic fiddleheads will appear and unfurl pale-green fronds into the spring air.
Read on: Top 10 Unusual Plants for a Shady Area
Written by production assistant Miya
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