I have a lot of christmas ferns and shield ferns. Once they get established, they are about the easiest plants I have to take of--not bothered noticeably
in this dry weather, & don't need dividing. Well, the shield ferns do grow thick, and I do thin them out and give some away after several years. I also like cinnamon ferns. I have two of them that are situated so they have "wet feet" most of the time, and they get pretty big, over 3 ft tall, with interesting brown fertile frond- thingies growing up in spring. I have cinnamon ferns that stay in dryer areas and do not grow so impressively in comparison. If you go to one of the plant digs when they have them at the landfill in spring, you can dig ferns for free. Thats where I got lots of mine.

tedevore,

thanks for the info. Tell me more about this plant dig thing. where, when?

I had the shield fern on my list to try.

Fnboyd, do a search on the Alabama forum for "landfill". There is quite a bit of information there. Disregard the Turkey Creek landfill info. Turkey Creek no longer has a plant dig. The Bham landfill is always in the middle of February. On one of the messages I have listed a phone number to call for info. I usually put a note on my MSN Outlook calendar to remind me to call in mid-January. I always post a reminder when I get the info.