I will guess that these 2 plants are not what you were thinking of when I said “fern.” But with the lifestyle I have–and that many of us have–these are two of the easiest care ferns around.
The two on the right–the bright greener plants–are called bird’s nests ferns. There’s a reason for that. If you look down into the center of these plants–where the new growth comes from–it looks like a little nest.
These plants are small so the effect isn’t really pronounced. On a larger plant–one in a 6 or 8 inch pot–it’s much easier to see. But the plants are great in any size.
The plant on the left is a staghorn fern. Many plant “purists” will say that this needs to be out of a pot and mounted on a piece of cork or bark to be grown properly. The reason for that is that “in the wild,” or where the grow naturally, they would grow on a tree bark.
Knowing my propensity for disaster, I haven’t mounted my fern. I will leave it up to you to decide how to grow yours. I can control the moisture requirements far beter in a traditional pot/cachepot arrangement.
Either way, I do recommend both these plants. No sun, low light and fairly moist is the way I grow mine.
Hey! I just featured bird’s nest fern recently. It really is weird. I grew only one way back when I was in high school. I miss it, but will not be growing one anytime soon. I just do not have that sort of garden now. We grow staghorn ferns at work because the children find them to be so compelling in their ‘outdoor sciences’ class. It is a good simple example of an epiphyte (or lithophyte, or whatever type of ‘phyte’ they want an example of). I wrote about another type of epiphyte too, but it is SO not what you would expect.
I remember your bird’s nest fern post.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with that New York City plant store, The Sill? They just emailed me today featuring the bird’s nest fern. Everyone must be on the same wave length about this, I guess.
I have grown them since my retail gardening days. Same thing with staghorn ferns. They’re too cool–& too easy–not to grow.
Karla