5 Christmas Fern Care Tips: How to Grow the Evergreen Ferns

Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides) are evergreen fern plants and members of the Dryopteridaceae (or wood fern) plant family. They derive their common name from their durability in cold climates. Unlike deciduous plant types, they retain their foliage through the Christmas season.

Christmas ferns are native ferns in eastern North America and sprout both sterile and fertile fronds. The sterile fronds remain intact throughout the colder months of the year, whereas the fertile fronds fall off and help the plant reproduce. The brownish undersides (or sori) of these fertile fronds possess spores that assist with the reproduction process. The rhizomes of these plants produce a long stipe, which in turn produces twenty to thirty-five pairs of pinnae. These pairs sprout a leaf on each side of the stipe called a pinnate.

Christmas ferns are easy to take care of, but they still require conscientious care. Here are five core tips you can follow to help them flourish:

1. 1. Give the ferns partial shade. These plants can thrive in full shade, but part shade and part sun is more ideal. Too much sun exposure can negatively affect your Christmas ferns, so err on the side of more shade. Once they begin to grow, their foliage provides ample ground cover and shade to other flowering plants and wildflowers in your garden.
2. 2. Keep an eye out for crown rot. As these plants start to grow, keep an eye out for their tops browning—this could be a sign of crown rot. Christmas ferns have a quick growth rate—their wound-up fiddleheads stretch out into green fronds quickly. Once they do, the tips of these leaves provide a meaningful indicator of your plant’s health. You’ll need to pull out the bare roots of the plant if crown rot takes hold, so prevention is key. Avoid over-watering the soil and you should be able to avoid this malady.
3. 3. Think about the weather. These evergreen plants thrive in the chill of USDA Hardiness Zones 3–9, but an especially cold late winter or hot early spring in those zones can be detrimental to the life cycle of these evergreen plants.
4. 4. Use moist soil. A well-draining, moist soil goes a long way for these ferns. You can provide them with mulch for an extra boost. You can use pine needles, dried leaves, compost, or anything else that helps add nutrients to the ground. These plants will add to the health of your soil, too. As Christmas ferns’ fertile fronds drop, they contribute to the soil’s humus levels and assist with soil erosion.
5. 5. Water the ferns just enough. These ferns and their evergreen fronds require just the right amount of soil moisture. Aim to water them once a week as a general rule, but only do so if the soil looks like it’s fairly dried out. These plants can suffer when they receive too much water, so it’s important to keep the soil moist without letting it become waterlogged.

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