Cinnamon fern

Cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea, certainly deserves its name! The fertile fronds look like they are made of ground cinnamon, adding a welcome touch of spice to a green, shady spot.

Like the other osmunda in my garden, the royal fern, the cinnamon fern develops a tough fibrous root ball that is clearly visible and makes it easy to identify. It is said to spread by rhizomes, but I certainly haven't seen any evidence of this yet. It definitely is not in the same league as ostrich ferns, which spread to the point of being invasive.

A rather strange thing happened with one of mine this year. The fertile fronds on both my cinnamon ferns, which are side by side, emerged during a prolonged period of cool, rainy weather (twice as much rain as normal), one slightly sooner than another. Under normal circumstances my fern corner does get a couple of hours of midday sun. When the rain finally stopped, we got a brief heat wave and the browning fronds wilted immediately. They just weren't used to light that intense. On the larger of the ferns, it must have caught them at a particularly vulnerable time; they have never recovered. The other came back nicely and has had little trouble since.

If you like the elegant vase shape of ostrich ferns, but would like something that keeps to its allotted space, the cinnamon fern is a great choice.

Ferns

My latest preoccupation has been identifying a number of native ferns given to me last year (thanks Bill!). As they emerge in the spring, their differences are more strikingly obvious.

This trio shows the kind of variety that you can get.

The brown one on the left is Osmunda regalis - royal fern.

The green one to the right is Dryopteris spinulosa - spinulose shield fern.

The chartreuse one in the back is Osmunda cinnamomea - cinnamon fern.

Onoclea sensibilis - sensitive fern, is busy unfurling in an obscure spot behind my bleeding heart (hmm, I may have to move it) and adds a fourth colour to my fern palette with its decidedly reddish cast.

The sensitive fern gets its name from the fact that it is very sensitive to frost, unlike the semi-evergreen Dryopteris genus. Let us hope we get no late frosts this year!