Fern plants for ground cover
Several low growing ferns are well suited for use as ground cover plants, either in parts of the garden where you want to maintain a naturalised appearance or to act as a foil to other, showier plants. These fascinating, highly versatile, ancient plants have grown unchanged for 360 million years with mysterious, intricate leaf formations. Watching their tightly rolled fiddleheads gradually unfurl into magnificent fronds is quite a delight, knowing you're seeing the same feat of nature that dinosaurs witnessed millions of years ago. Their architectural foliage is great for adding movement as it gently rustles in the wind, giving a calming sense to your garden. Being richly associated with wilderness and nature, ferns can bring a feeling of the wild into any part of the garden where they are introduced. Any corner in which they are placed immediately looks as though nature has taken a hand in the planting. Ferns combine well in borders with other shade loving plants such as hostas and astilbes to create a lush display of foliage. Grow them in groups of odd numbers for best effect. Ferns will be happy grown in the shaded area below the canopy of a tree and are invaluable alongside water features, next to ponds or cascaded down ravine gardens. They're easy to grow, long-lived, seldom troubled by pests and diseased and come in a wide range of colours, shapes and sizes.