Adiantum capillus-veneris (Southern maidenhair fern)

(1 user review)

All painted fern varieties have broad silvery leaves, but ‘Ursula’s Red’ differs in that the centers of its leaves have a wide, showy burgundy band in spring. Spreading from rhizomes, it quickly doubles its size in one growing season. Though deer do like it, it can quickly produce more fronds and may show no lasting ill effects.

This hybrid has petite green-and-cream variegated foliage with a hint of pink on the undersides. It produces chartreuse and apple green bicolored bracts on airy stems.

True black does not exist in the horticultural world, but black mondo grass is as close as one gets. The grasslike foliage contrasts beautifully with variegated woodland plants and with its own pink flowers produced on upright racemes in midsummer. The rhizomatous clumps spread slowly but are evergreen in mild winters or in the warmer portions of its range.

Black mondo grass has straplike, shiny black foliage and grows in adorable little tufts. The newer leaves start out with a greenish hue but soon age to black. The flowers are bell shaped and can be pink, pale violet, or white, and they give way to fleshy black seeds that often remain on the plant throughout the winter. This perennial spreads slowly through underground stolons and is extraordinary when paired with chartreuse foliage. It is great in a shady container planting.

Spreading, glossy, dark green fronds reach a length of 8 to 24 inches. This fern has holly-like pinnae and sori scattered over the underside of the pinnae.