Friday, February 15, 2013

Rabbit's Foot Fern (Davallia fejeensis)

Farmer MacGregor's grandma was a fairly successful gardener. He inherited her Rabbit's Foot Fern decades ago. He did not inherit her love of gardening. If there is a garden task to be done, old man MacGregor does not relish puttering along. No sir. He gets the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Done!

That fern was divided into 3 sections a few years ago. 1 section was potted while the other 2 were planted in hanging wire baskets. Fine then. Not fine now. Now, roses have been planted in the bed below the baskets. The wisteria above the roses has been pruned exposing the ferns to much more sunlight. Roses and ferns have different water needs. Roses and ferns have different sunlight needs. The solution is to take the baskets and plant them in urns in the shade. About half of the basketed fern will be immersed in acid rich potting soil. (See photo below.)

The rhizomes that resemble rabbits' feet now curl around the wire baskets. The baskets will simply be placed into urns where the feet should grow over the edges of the urns. It's pretty cool.

Now I'm in the market for a couple of urns. Light weight is preferred for ease of mobility; so a resin urn will work best. I know. Resin isn't the "real deal". Some can look very cheap. But there are some that are very good imitations.

Any suggestions for an urn source are appreciated.

2 comments:

dorothy said...

I bought a large cheap resin urn from Home Depot several years ago for my trailing abutilon. I enhanced it by using one of those 'American Accents'
paint kits by Rust-oleum. I think I used 'leather' but it may have been 'rust'. It was very easy to use with the spray on paint and the little antiquing kit that was provided. The color lasted for years. Now I have 'Cast Iron' plant growing in it, so I painted it black. (I can't grow Rabbit's Foot Fern' for the life of me!)

HolleyGarden said...

I have a resin urn, too. Probably the same one as Dorothy. But it sounds like she "antiqued" hers into looking great! Mine looks like a resin urn. But it's easy to move! ;)