How NOT to leave ferns overwinter

This is the time of year - early winter, at the time of writing - when our ferns are starting to look brown and revolting, so now is the time to get out there and cut off all the dying foliage.

Here's a typical example - left: the ends of the fronds are black, and they have flopped down to  the ground, exhausted, and longing to be taken away to a place where they can lay down and quietly decompose.

Let's put them out of their misery, and cut them off, then.

Out with the secateurs, and off we go! 

Now, at this point, I always instruct people to cut the dead or dying fronds off as low down as they can, not to leave stumps. 

This is what it should like like once you are done:

This is the same clump as in the photo above: all the fronds have been cut off, and I've take the opportunity to remove the Lamium that was creeping all around the fern base, as well.

Sometimes, students will ask "what if some of the fronds are still quite green and nice?" and my answer is that once you start cutting them off, it's best to cut the whole lot off, otherwise you may find that the remaining fronds won't stand upright without the dead ones underneath.

Also, you could look on it this way: if most of the fronds have reached the wilting point, then the others are going to be there pretty soon, and you are just making two jobs for yourself, instead of doing it all in one go.

Conversely, of course, if only one or two fronds have gone brown or black, then carefully snip those few out, and leave the rest until they have reached the stage of "not looking nice any more".

Regardless of when you cut them, the important part is how to cut them - and that is, right down to the base.

This is definitely how not to do it!

 No! No!

What is that??

Why did you cut off the top, and leave the brown stem behind??

It looks ridiculous! 

And it won't improve - those brown bits will stay like that, or at best they'll partially snap at the base, or bend over, and then they will lie on the ground, looking up at you, accusingly.

In the meantime, they will catch every fallen leaf, every bit of wind-blown debris or litter: yes, it could be said that they are creating micro-climates and/or wildlife habitats, but honestly, there are acres, miles, of untended land all around us: road verges, railway embankments, canals, walks, footpaths, backs-of-industrial-areas, neglected areas, hedgerows, junctions of back-to-back gardens: all these places provide plenty of micro climates and wildlife habitats, so there really is no need to allow your precious garden to become over-run with weeds.

So you might as well do a proper job the first time: cut them off flush with the tightly furled new fronds (technical term: croziers) (which still sounds like "croupiers" to me) so that they end up looking more like this:

... a collection of round, light green knobbles.

You can now clear a space around the fern, and if time allows, you can also clear away some of the moss and other debris which has found its way in amongst the knobbles.

This is now all set for the winter:  and come spring, you will be able to see the first signs of those new croziers, as they start to unfold!

 

 

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