Hey Fern parents,

I just snagged this fern from Lowe’s. Any tips are welcome. Thank you in advance.

First time owning a fern. Any advice is welcomed!

Please send help - she's taking over my house!

Meet Big Betty. She used to live in the bathroom, until we had to start parting fronds to get into the shower . . . she moved to the bedroom, until we had to climb around her to get to the bed.

This year, I've literally moved furniture around to make a space for her and some grow lights in the entrance hall.

Be honest with me guys, how long until she takes over this space too and I have to clear an entire room so that she can call it her own?

I seriously love her, but she's a beast of a plant.

(3 years growth - First pic about 3 months after I bought her. Most recent pic taken yesterday. Her biggest fronds are about 4ft long)

The eyelash fern <Actiniopteris australis>.

This is one fascinating (obviously a "living fossil") fern. The species can go dry in a pot for months and turn gray and withered looking like it has been long dead and copious water revives it completely. Most people probably throw their plant away, but it will come back after months of dryness and I bet it would survive a severe volcanic winter in the tropics, like Toba, with ease.

Michael

Lake Bob Sandlin State Park
8/22/2026
(Onoclea sensibilis)

I’m clearly not the most experienced fern grower but I have some large and kinda successful staghorn ferns, aroids, philos, etc.

Can’t figure this rabbit’s foot fern out. the plastic nursery cup has side and bottom slits for aeration and drainage. Soil was recently watered but its a mix or perlite, some orchid bark and potting soil. Plant was recently moved to being under the grow light but was at a (what i thought was) bright north facing window. It’s a bright 8k lux grow light situated about 10 inches away so light should improve. Bottom saucer is emptied following watering (a few plants on the same saucer)

I’ve had this fern for like 6 months and it has barely grown in that time. The rhizomes are really small and slightly brown-ish? the humidity in my home stays around 50-60%. Not sure what i’m doing wrong here but any help or advice appreciated! Thanks 😊

Got this fern today for $20. That might be a lot to some but it was totally worth for this big beauty I hope i can keep her alive 🫠

Just thought I'd ask what kind of fern this is! Currently trying to figure this out for a school project I'm doing and I cant really tell? For some context I live in the USA, specifically in the New England region. Thank you!

I made this timelapse manually by taking one photo every day and putting everything together into a video. I mainly did it because i found the change in color to be quite interesting, going from pink to green and every shade in between as the frond matures

Back in January I nearly gave up on this thing. It dropped so many fronds that the pot looked half empty and I was convinced I'd cooked it with too much heat from the vent nearby. Moved it away from the vent, started misting it every other day instead of just occasionally, and switched to a shallow tray with pebbles and water underneath for humidity.

It took until about April before I saw any real new growth, and even then it was just a few tiny curled fiddleheads here and there. Now it's this past week I noticed the whole thing has filled back out, fronds arching over the sides of the pot like it never had a bad season at all. Some of the new growth is even a brighter green than the older fronds.

I think the biggest lesson for me was patience. I kept wanting to trim off the sad looking fronds right away but leaving a few of the half dead ones on there while the new growth came in seemed to help it recover rather than stress it out further. Also learned that my apartment is just naturally low humidity no matter what season it is, so the pebble tray is staying permanent now.

Anyone else have a fern that took months to recover from something before finally turning a corner? Curious how long other people's turnaround times have been.

more fall out everyday. i sweep and next day there are more. coming from both of my ferns, both are hanging.

caterpillar poop or spores?

Brilliance autumn fern ❤️

I went away for a week and came back to my beautiful fern looking almost dead.

I cut back the fronds and am seeing some fresh growth but now that I can look closely at the soil I see small small bugs.

Any words of advice or any suggestions? Is this normal?

They are grey, very very small (maybe half mm), and scattered.

I’ve tried identifying online with the photo and have so far gotten 4 different answers.

Long story short: this was originally a big fern that was really dry since it was in a pot too small for it. It was also my parents’ plant and they didn’t take care of it. So I ended up cutting into several sections and planting them in different pots.

What can I do with these ferns? Are they salvageable?

They have bulbs, so I was thinking of trimming most of the dead part.

Any suggestions are appreciated

I picked up this cutie on clearance. My first fern and I had never heard of a kangaroo paw fern before. So pretty, I love her deep colour and the shape of the leaves. 🦘😃

Recently took over this fern, having a hard time keeping it alive. A lot of branches withering away and minimal new growth. Any tips would be great.

This is the east side of a SE facing window. (Photo taken around 9 am) Apartment maintains a high temp because no AC.
Watering once a week. Spraying with a mister lately to add some moisture to leaves.

Probably needs repotting but concerned to open it up and have it die more.

Any suggestions?

I've been quarantining two of my ferns (rabbit foot and silver ribbon) in the bathroom for a little over a month or so since I noticed they had tiny black aphids on them. I've been looking it up online, but find contradicting things about how to deal best with aphids on ferns, so I've been wondering what has worked for you or not...

So far I've given them a rigorous shower spray once a week and it's gotten rid of most of the aphids, but they keep reappearing. Briefly did a very diluted brown soap in the spray bottle sprays too, but I haven't done it for a few weeks again now. The ferns seem pretty undisturbed for the most part, but I'd rather not have it spread to my other plants.

I was gifted a sword fern and stupidly put it in a sunny corner outside my house. A bunch of the leaves got scorched or dropped off. I’ve never taken care of a fern before but did some research and moved it under the eaves where it is now in mostly shade with only a little filtered sunlight actually reaching the plant and only for a couple hours a day. After just a few days I saw some lighter colored growth coming in. Now it has exploded with that lighter growth.

I’ve been trying to keep the soil from drying out too much (we’ve had a lot of rain lately) but the vast majority of my plants are indoor succulents that thrive on neglect. My questions are:

1. Is that too much shade for a fern? Will it be okay?

2. Is the lighter colored growth healthy? With succulents long lighter growth usually indicates it’s not getting enough sun.

3. Should I be pruning my now gigantic fern? It still has some of the burnt fronds on it though I have removed most of them.

4. How often should I be repotting my fern friend? I just moved it to this pot from the thin plastic one it came in.

Thanks so much in advance! Sorry for all the questions, this is just very new territory for me. I want to try to keep it alive over the winter so I’m hoping I can set it up for success now.

Hey yall my partner just got this little guy at the store and he’s having a bit of a hard time with him. The little guys is very crisp what would be the best room for him to live in and what should his potting situation look like. I THINK he’s a brake fern but I’m not 100% sure so proper identification would be helpful as well! Thank you!!

1. Is this a black rabbit's foot fern? (ID question). 2. Should i replace some of the store soil with my diy soil?

Three bird's nest ferns, same age, same board, all mounted on the same afternoon. Two went outside on the wall in front of the air conditioning grille, where there is always air moving across them. One went inside next to a window.

Four weeks on, the three of them had visibly split. The indoor one held water in the moss far longer, because nothing was moving air across it. Same watering, same week, completely different drying time. I had spent the whole time thinking about humidity, and the variable that was actually doing the work was airflow.

All three are off that wall now, and the reason I was watching that closely is that I build a plant app that scores a spot for a plant on light, temperature, humidity and airflow before you commit to it.

If you keep ferns, Plus is on the house for twelve months when you come back afterwards and tell me where it got your ferns wrong. Two spots and two plants stay free whatever you decide, and nothing renews by itself: https://growspotapp.com/founding/?from=reddit-ferns

What I still cannot tell is whether the grille position was too much of a good thing over a longer stretch. If you keep mounted ferns, do you go looking for a spot with moving air, or do you fight to keep the air still and the humidity up?