0:00

I'm going to be honest with you, plant friends,

0:02

I have done a complete 180 on ferns. If

0:06

you've listened to this podcast for the

0:08

last 250 episodes, you've probably heard me

0:10

say how I don't like ferns,

0:13

how I've killed Boston ferns, how they're not

0:15

my favorite recommended house plant. But man, I

0:17

have been caring successfully for ferns for

0:20

the last year or so. And

0:22

I have learned a thing or two that I am

0:24

so excited to tell you because I have to say,

0:27

I have really enjoyed adding ferns to

0:29

my collection, but it's adding the right

0:32

ferns to your collection and not the

0:34

wrong ones. So let's dive into it.

0:43

Welcome to the Growing Joy with Plants

0:45

podcast, where we not only learn how

0:47

to care for plants successfully, but how

0:50

to simply and affordably use our plant

0:52

babies to cultivate more joy in our

0:54

lives by doing so. I'm Maria, former

0:56

plant killer turned happy plant lady, author

0:58

of Growing Joy, The Plant Lover's Guide

1:00

to Cultivating Happiness, speaker, podcaster, and most

1:03

importantly, your new best plant friend. On

1:05

Growing Joy with Plants, you'll find conversations

1:07

about house plant care, gardening tutorials, and

1:09

wellness through the lens of plants. Plant

1:12

care is self care

1:15

on Growing Joy. Hello,

1:21

plant friends. Welcome. I'm Maria, your new best plant

1:23

friend. If you're new here, hi, I'm here to

1:25

help you care for plants successfully and grow joy

1:27

in your life by doing so. And if you're

1:30

a repeat listener, welcome home. Welcome back. I'm so

1:32

honored to be a part of your planty journeys.

1:34

You might hear my little baby parakeet in the

1:36

background, Frankie. So funny with

1:38

this podcast. He's silent all day in

1:41

my office until I literally click record,

1:43

and then he's a little chatterbox. So

1:45

he's excited about ferns too today. Today's

1:48

episode is going to be all about ferns, about

1:50

my experience growing ferns, a bunch of care tips.

1:52

We're going to go over different varieties

1:54

of ferns that you can grow, ones that you

1:56

should grow and ones that you shouldn't grow. And

1:58

I'm so thankful to Prue. Proven Winners Leaf Joy

2:01

for partnering with me on this Growing Joy

2:03

with Leaf Joy miniseries where we do these

2:05

deep dives on plant care and genus deep

2:07

dives to make sure that you feel empowered

2:10

to grow plants successfully. And therefore, when we're

2:12

growing plants successfully, then we get to grow

2:14

joy in our lives by doing so. Please

2:17

let me know if you have requests for this

2:20

miniseries, whether it's a genus you'd like us to

2:22

dive into or whether it's a certain aspect of

2:24

plant care. But man, I do

2:26

love Proven Winners Leaf Joy. They are growing

2:28

high quality house plants, big full

2:30

house plants. I also am finding that when you

2:32

start with a big full pot of a really

2:35

well established house plant, especially with a fern, you're

2:37

going to set yourself up for more success than

2:39

if you start with like a little wimpy cutting

2:41

or something. But they are growing

2:43

plants in a European greenhouse, high

2:46

quality, incredible species, incredible cultivars that we're going

2:48

to dive into today. Make sure that you

2:50

ask your local garden center if they have

2:52

Proven Winners Leaf Joy and look for the

2:55

Leaf Joy tag. Okay, so one

2:57

reason why I love ferns, and I don't

2:59

know if you're like me, but I always

3:01

track plants in TV shows. And on Will

3:03

& Grace, there's a huge Boston fern in

3:05

Will & Grace's apartment. It's so epic and

3:07

big and bushy. And if you know, you

3:09

know, and you don't, you don't. But anyway,

3:11

I've always loved that fern and I've always

3:13

wanted ferns to look like that in my

3:15

house. But before we dive

3:17

into plant care, I'm going to talk

3:19

to you about how we can have

3:21

thriving, big, bushy, happy ferns in our

3:24

homes. Let's zoom out and

3:26

go over the high level overview

3:28

of the fern genus. So ferns

3:30

have been around for millions of

3:33

years. They are one of the

3:35

original plants. They date

3:37

back to prehistoric times. And

3:39

because of that, there's a very

3:41

wide array of fern families and

3:44

species because they're actually very resilient

3:46

and adaptive. So when we think

3:48

of ferns, we think of a maiden hair fern that

3:50

you're going to bring inside and it's going to like

3:52

die immediately on you. But if you

3:54

think about it, in order for a plant

3:56

to have survived and grown decade over decade

3:59

over decade, they They need to be resilient.

4:01

They have adapted to changing environments and climates.

4:03

I don't know if you've ever seen that

4:05

meme on social media, but it's this funny

4:07

meme about how you see a fern growing

4:10

out of a crack in a rock on

4:12

the sidewalk and thriving, but then the minute

4:14

you bring it home, it's gonna shrivel up

4:16

and die. So they're in reality in the

4:19

jungle, they're very resilient. And because they're one

4:21

of the earliest plants to grow

4:23

and adapt on land, they have played

4:25

a very significant role in Earth's ecosystems.

4:27

They thrive in a variety of different

4:30

habitats, but most of those habitats are

4:32

high humidity. So when we're talking about

4:34

ferns, we're gonna be talking

4:36

about humidity. Before we dive into that

4:38

and the care, other interesting

4:40

thing about ferns is that they reproduce

4:42

differently than a lot of our other

4:45

houseplants. So spurns have spores. You might've

4:47

seen if you grow a fern, like

4:49

they're little dark spots on the leaves

4:51

that are in an even pattern. Sometimes

4:53

they might look like scale, or they

4:55

might look like almost a burn, or

4:58

scabs, but those are spores. They're the

5:00

reproductive units produced by ferns and other

5:02

non-flowering plants. So they're not like seeds

5:04

where a fern doesn't grow a flower

5:06

and then that flower turns into a

5:08

seed, and then you can plant that

5:10

seed and grow another fern. It

5:13

has these spores that are single-celled

5:15

structures that kind of explode and travel

5:17

in the air, and then they can

5:19

develop new ferns under the right conditions.

5:21

So often people will write me saying,

5:23

"'Oh my God, my fern has scale,'

5:25

or, "'Oh my God, my fern has

5:27

these weird brown dots. "'What's wrong with

5:29

it?'" And there's nothing wrong with it.

5:31

It's spores. It's trying to reproduce, so

5:33

you're doing a great job. So a

5:35

wonderful thing about ferns is that they're

5:37

a low-light tolerant plant. So ferns, understory,

5:39

they grow on the floor. They grow

5:41

in shade, which is amazing. I remember

5:43

I was in Jamaica recently, and

5:45

I was in this cave, and there were

5:47

ferns just thriving, growing on the inside of

5:49

this cave. They were like barely getting any

5:51

light. So they're a low-light tolerant

5:54

plant, and for us houseplant lovers, that's actually

5:56

amazing because we only have so much valuable

5:58

real estate. estate in our window sills, right,

6:00

which tend to be higher light opportunities. So

6:02

ferns can be great choices for bright indirect

6:05

light or low light. If you have like

6:07

a coffee table, that's away from a window.

6:09

If you have a bathroom that has a

6:11

small window, but low light. Ferns

6:13

are great low light options. They are not

6:16

gonna tolerate direct light. So that's where you

6:18

might start to see leaf burn. You don't

6:20

wanna put your fern in a southern facing

6:22

window. You don't wanna put your fern under

6:24

a grow light that's too strong or on

6:26

too long for the day. So in general,

6:28

they're gonna like filtered light, bright indirect light,

6:30

medium or are low light tolerant. Watering is

6:33

where you are going to win or lose

6:35

with ferns in addition to humidity. And frankly,

6:37

you can argue that watering and humidity are

6:39

two of the same things. So consistently

6:41

moist soil is what is going to

6:44

make ferns happy and it's what's going

6:46

to avoid those like crispy brown edges.

6:49

Your ferns do not wanna dry out. No matter

6:51

what type of fern you're growing, it doesn't wanna

6:53

dry out. It wants evenly moist soil. So here

6:55

is what I have found. Here are some changes

6:58

that I've made with my ferns that have enabled

7:00

me to consistently care for them. My

7:02

ferns are in highly trafficked areas in my home.

7:05

Because of that, I'm always interacting with them. My

7:07

ferns are all in my office and I'm in

7:09

my office every day. So every day when I

7:11

see them, I can see up it's beginning to

7:13

wilt or I can put my finger on the

7:15

soil up the soil is getting dry. I can

7:17

keep a close eye on ferns because

7:20

the minute the top of the soil starts to

7:22

dry out, I'm going to immediately start watering it

7:24

again. If you keep your fern soil

7:26

evenly moist, you're not gonna have to worry about

7:28

the humidity as much with the heartier ferns that

7:31

we're gonna talk about. I

7:33

never put my ferns in terracotta pots because

7:35

of that because the terracotta will wick the

7:37

water out of the soil. I put my

7:40

ferns in glazed ceramics. I

7:42

put my ferns in plastic pots in a cashpo

7:44

or just in a plastic pot. Most of my

7:46

ferns are in a plastic nursery pot that is

7:48

then in a cashpo in a pot that has

7:50

no drainage holes. You can also use

7:53

self watering planters with ferns. So I have a

7:55

bunch of different types of self watering planters that

7:57

I'm experimenting with right now, but you can get

7:59

a self watering. planter with a fern and as

8:01

long as you remember to keep that self-watering reservoir

8:03

filled and you don't let that reservoir dry out,

8:05

which is something I've done before, that's going to

8:07

be a great option with ferns. Another

8:10

thing that I've really been experimenting with and finding

8:12

great success, you know, I'm about to leave for

8:14

10 days. I'm recording this episode, closing my computer

8:16

and hitting the road for 10 days. I

8:19

have found around 10 days for me and

8:21

my home environment, I have been

8:24

taking sphagnum moss and dampening it and then

8:26

putting it on top of the soil. And

8:29

that gets my ferns through about 10 days

8:31

without watering, without completely shriveling

8:33

up and dying. So

8:36

I have found two. So I tried this sphagnum

8:38

moss on top of the soil for a 10-day

8:40

trip that I took. And it was

8:42

so successful that now I actually just have all of

8:44

my ferns. I keep sphagnum moss on top of the

8:46

soil. And when I just water it, it's like I

8:48

water the moss and the moss gets wet and also

8:50

the water goes through the moss and then into the

8:52

soil. And I've just found that

8:54

that moss has helped maintain and kind of trap

8:56

the water in the soil and it keeps the

8:59

soil evenly moist. And for someone who is guilty

9:01

of under watering plants a lot, that layer of

9:03

sphagnum moss on top of the soil has been

9:05

really helpful. And I'm actually

9:07

looking at one of my ferns right now and

9:09

realizing that it doesn't have moss on it because

9:11

I repotted it. So I need to add moss

9:14

to it before I leave for my trip today.

9:16

I haven't tried this technique. I don't remember who

9:18

I saw on the internet doing it, but another

9:20

technique I've seen which helps increase humidity allegedly is

9:22

that, say you have a

9:24

fern in a cashpo. You can put

9:26

damp sphagnum moss in between the nursery

9:28

pot and the cashpo and that

9:31

damp sphagnum moss will kind of transpire and like

9:33

release a little bit of humidity. I think that's

9:35

an interesting thing. I haven't tried that, but if

9:37

you do try that technique, please report back to

9:39

me because it sounds like it makes a lot

9:41

of sense. So if you want

9:43

ferns to thrive, you got to keep that water

9:45

moist. That's really what's going to do it. And

9:47

we'll talk a little bit more about that when

9:49

we dive into species in a second. The

9:52

other thing that most ferns tend

9:54

to suffer from is humidity. So

9:56

when you can, ferns are going to

9:59

love high humidity. If you want to grow a maiden

10:01

hair fern, a heart leaf fern, some

10:04

versions of the Boston fern, the

10:06

more delicate versions of the Boston

10:08

fern, any of the ferns that

10:10

have super, super, super delicate, fine

10:12

paper-like thin fronds and leaves, those

10:15

ferns are going to need high humidity. We're talking

10:17

like 60 to 80% to

10:19

really be bushy and huge and

10:22

thriving, right? Now, other heartier

10:24

ferns like the bird's nest fern, some

10:26

rabbit's foot ferns like the lemon fern, like some

10:28

of those are not going to need as much

10:30

humidity. And those are the ones that I like

10:33

and that I've really been caring for. But if

10:35

you're going to grow a fancy fern, you're going

10:37

to need some sort of fancy humidifier situation. Ferns

10:39

are great options for growing under glass.

10:42

If you want to increase local humidity, but you

10:44

don't want to increase the humidity of an entire

10:47

room, you can get a specimen plant

10:49

and put it under glass. So I used to

10:51

have an asparagus fern, and I

10:53

grew that asparagus fern with a glass

10:55

cloche on top of the actual pot.

10:59

So the cloche was only for this one plant. You

11:01

can buy these cloches on the internet. I think I

11:03

have them on my shop in my Amazon storefront, but

11:06

they're glass cloches that literally sit on top

11:08

of the lip of the pot and basically

11:10

increase humidity just for the plant's leaves. They're

11:12

also great things to have for if you

11:14

ever need to resuscitate a plant and you

11:16

need to just like boost humidity. If

11:18

I'm ever resuscitating a plant, if I'm growing a new cutting,

11:20

I'll pop the cloche over it as well. But

11:23

anyway, if you want to grow a maiden hair fern, if you want

11:25

to grow a heart leaf fern, put that

11:27

puppy under glass. Put it in a

11:29

terrarium, put it under a cloche, put

11:31

it in a beautiful Edwardian cabinet, put

11:33

it in a grow tent, right? So

11:35

try and increase that humidity, either by

11:37

putting it under glass or using a

11:39

humidifier. Another trick that I think is

11:41

one of the reasons why my ferns

11:43

are growing so well is when you

11:46

group plants, you do kind of create

11:48

a microclimate. Their transpiration will kind of

11:50

boost the humidity by a couple of

11:52

points. My ferns that I'm

11:54

growing successfully are on my Zoom background.

11:57

I think I have like 20 plants in one bookshelf with

11:59

grow lights. and all of my ferns are there,

12:01

so I feel like because they're surrounded by other plants,

12:04

they're rockin' and rollin' and super happy and probably

12:06

benefiting from the transpiration of the other plants around

12:08

them. In terms of fertilizing, you're

12:11

gonna wanna be gentle with ferns. They

12:13

are a delicate, sensitive sally, but when

12:15

you see new growth, you wanna fertilize.

12:17

I love using a liquid indoor house

12:19

plant-specific fertilizer. It's a liquid indoor fertilizer

12:21

I put in my watering can and

12:24

then fertilize the plants. It's super gentle.

12:26

It's specifically for indoors. If you're using

12:28

an outdoor fertilizer, you should use

12:30

half the strength for house plants, if not

12:32

even a quarter of the strength for house

12:35

plants. But if you see new fern fronds,

12:37

support that plant and give it some love.

12:39

And then another thing that I think is

12:42

important with ferns is you just need to

12:44

get on top of the grooming. Ferns are

12:46

like a pet that needs to be groomed

12:48

occasionally. With ferns, you're gonna

12:50

have brown fronds. You're gonna have some

12:52

fronds turn brown, fall off, die off.

12:54

You're gonna maybe have a yellow one.

12:57

Just get comfortable with grooming the plant. Ferns

12:59

are also very resilient. So I used to

13:02

have this Boston fern where like every

13:04

six months I would forget to water it

13:07

and like it would turn pretty brown and

13:09

crispy. And I would go back and forth

13:11

between, do I toss this or do I

13:13

just like give it a total

13:15

haircut? And then, especially with those Boston ferns,

13:17

if you just give it a haircut and

13:19

like chop off all the brown fronds, new

13:22

fronds will grow in very quickly. Like I

13:24

said, these plants are very resilient outdoors. So

13:26

even though they're sensitive, they're not just gonna

13:28

like completely die on you. As long as

13:30

the roots are intact, you can prune the

13:32

plant back, prune all the brown

13:34

stuff off and the new fresh green fronds

13:36

will grow in. But I think if you

13:38

want to care for ferns indoors, you need

13:40

to like emotionally prepare yourself for the fact

13:42

that you are gonna see brown spots. Like

13:44

I don't know anyone in any of my

13:46

plant friends that like has perfect specimen ferns

13:48

indoors unless they're growing them under glass in

13:50

an IKEA cabinet, in an Edwardian case, under

13:53

a cloche. And so if you're gonna have

13:55

ferns just as a general part of your

13:57

collection, just like be comfortable with the fact

13:59

that you might. There's

16:00

not no light tolerant. So if

16:02

you're putting your fern in like a room with no

16:04

windows or a room that gets such, such little light

16:06

or you're putting it so far from a window, it

16:09

gets such little light that it can't really survive,

16:11

that's also where it's gonna lose its leaves because

16:13

it's not gonna be able to sustain itself because

16:15

it's not making enough food for itself through photosynthesis.

16:18

So that could also be a lighting issue. Also,

16:21

if it's in too much light, you're

16:23

gonna see the fronds turn brown. It's wild. I

16:25

had to put my Monstera in my car the

16:27

other day and I was driving with it.

16:29

It was a really hot day. The sun was really bright. And

16:31

one of the big leaves on my

16:34

Monstera is scorched. It turned completely brown.

16:36

I feel so bad because the leaf

16:38

was under my windshield and I feel

16:40

terrible, but I just hacked it off

16:42

and life moved on, you know? So

16:44

now let's move into our

16:46

species. So once again, I just wanna say

16:48

a quick thanks to Proven Winners Leaf Joy

16:50

for partnering on this episode and this mini

16:52

series, the Growing Joy with Leaf Joy series.

16:54

It's made to help empower you to grow

16:56

whatever plants you wanna grow successfully. That's why

16:58

we hit it from the genus level. That's

17:00

why we hit it from the how to

17:02

water your house plants level, like common, good,

17:04

solid house plant care education. Proven

17:07

Winners Leaf Joy is growing high

17:09

quality house plants in their

17:11

fancy European greenhouses in the

17:13

States. I love the different

17:15

species that they're cultivating. They're cultivating

17:18

really interesting plants. They're cultivating really

17:20

high quality plants. I love

17:22

how robust and how many leaves the plants

17:25

in their four inch pots come. Even

17:27

their smallest pot comes with a

17:29

very established robust plant and that makes it

17:31

much easier to win as a plant parent

17:33

when you care for a robust plant. Their

17:35

plant name tags have plant Latin so you

17:38

know exactly what you're growing, which I really

17:40

appreciate. So when you're at the garden center,

17:42

look for the Proven Winners Leaf Joy tag.

17:44

Ask for Proven Winners Leaf Joy at your

17:46

garden center so you can grow joy the

17:48

way we are. All right, so

17:50

let's go into what friends you should grow and

17:52

what friends you shouldn't grow. I

17:54

have seen very few people successfully

17:56

grow made in hair ferns indoors.

18:00

you do not have a humidity

18:02

amplifier or a glass case. If

18:05

you are a 2.0, 3.0 varsity plant parent, sure, live

18:09

your truth, live your best life, go for the made

18:12

in hair ferns. But if you are a beginner plant

18:14

parent, I do not recommend a made in hair fern.

18:16

You're gonna see it at the garden center. It's gonna

18:18

look so beautiful. It's gonna be so bushy and the

18:20

fronds are so delicate and it like blows in the

18:22

wind and you're gonna be like, oh my God, this

18:24

made in hair fern, it's amazing. And

18:27

you're gonna bring it home. And it's probably, if you

18:29

don't put it under high humidity, it's gonna kind of

18:31

shrivel up and die and you're gonna feel so bad.

18:33

So leave the made in hair ferns for thriving on

18:36

the side of a mountain, out of a

18:38

crack in a rock near a stream. Like

18:41

they need so much humidity to thrive and

18:43

they need such evenly moist soil. Like they

18:45

don't leave a lot of room for error.

18:48

If you have a made in hair fern and

18:50

you've burned it, also just hack all the leaves

18:53

off and see if it grows back before you

18:55

toss it. I recommend that with every fern you

18:57

grow. Like before you toss it, see if you

18:59

can resuscitate it in that capacity. So I wouldn't

19:01

recommend made in hair ferns. I also wouldn't recommend,

19:04

and I learned this the hard way, that adorable

19:06

little heart leaf fern, it's so

19:08

petite and the fronds are heart shaped and it's

19:10

so cute. But once again, it's a very sensitive

19:12

plant. If you're not growing it under glass, if

19:15

you're not giving it humidity, it's gonna be really

19:17

hard to care for. So once again, that's a

19:19

2.0, 3.0 plant. Like

19:21

you can totally grow it, but I wouldn't say as

19:24

your first plant to bring home, as your first fern

19:26

to bring home, you should. Let's talk about

19:28

the ferns you should bring home. 10

19:30

out of 10, my most favorite hardiest fern that

19:32

I've grown so far, I'm so obsessed with it.

19:34

I'm so impressed with it is the bird's nest

19:36

fern. And you can tell the fronds

19:39

are thicker. The leaves of the bird's nest ferns

19:41

are thicker. They're a little bit more succulent. They're

19:43

a little bit more hardy. Proven

19:45

Winners Leaf Joy has a variety of bird's nest

19:47

fern called the hurricane. It is

19:49

so cute. The leaves curl under in

19:52

this really funky little shape. And I

19:54

have also found that with the bird's

19:56

nest ferns, because the leaves kind of

19:58

stick out horizontally. they cover the soil

20:00

and so it's harder for the soil

20:02

to dry out. They manage

20:05

their soil moisture retention because the leaves

20:07

cover the soil as a moisture barrier,

20:09

which I have found like I don't

20:11

have to water my bird's nest hurricane

20:14

as much as I have to water

20:16

my rabbit's foot fern because I feel

20:18

like the bird's nest leaves are protecting

20:20

the soil. With bird's

20:22

nest ferns, there's all sorts of different types,

20:24

but I love the hurricane variety. The Victoria

20:26

variety is really cool, but I love bird's

20:28

nest ferns. I feel like they should be

20:30

the beginner fern for anyone who wants to

20:33

dabble in the world of ferns. Another

20:35

fern that I'm really loving. Now this

20:37

fern can show some signs of humidity.

20:39

It depends on which species you bring

20:42

home, but the rabbit's foot ferns are

20:44

also super fun. You might see these

20:46

as kangaroo paw. The one that I

20:48

have from Proven Winners Leaf Joy is

20:50

the Living Lace Divana. It's a phlebotium

20:52

aureum. They're so cute,

20:54

but they're known as rabbit's foot ferns

20:56

because they have these rhizomes that are

20:58

fuzzy that grow on top of the

21:00

soil. So it looks like they're little

21:02

rabbit's feet like popping out of the

21:04

soil. It's really cute, but these types

21:06

of ferns have really beautiful fronds. The

21:08

kangaroo paw one is really popular. This

21:11

Divana one that I have, the

21:14

fronds are almost blue. It's so

21:16

gorgeous. It grows in

21:18

a clump style. The juvenile

21:20

leaves are light green and then they emerge.

21:23

And as they age, they turn this like

21:25

powdery blue-green patina and it's so gorgeous. And

21:27

when it catches the light in different angles

21:29

of the light, it's a different color. It's

21:31

so gorgeous. And also they're so delicate and

21:33

they kind of get that like standing, like

21:35

floating in midair kind of blown in the

21:37

wind. They kind of get that vibe of

21:39

the maiden hair fern, but they're a little

21:41

bit heartier. Another great fern that I have

21:43

found is really hardy. So if you do

21:45

have that baldness moment, if you do have

21:48

a browning moment, like hack it off and

21:50

it'll just grow back is the Boston fern,

21:52

the lemon button fern, right? Those nice big

21:54

bushy ferns, that's the one I was talking

21:56

about in Will and Grace. Those ferns are

21:58

great. Make sure those are even. when

22:01

you underwater them, they will turn brown. But

22:03

I have found if you buy a nice robust Boston

22:06

fern or lemon button fern, you

22:08

can have success with them in your house. I

22:11

did for a long time until I moved and then the

22:13

fern didn't make it in the move. And then last but

22:16

not least, and this is a plant that I'm still experimenting

22:18

with, but I'm also really surprised at how I'm growing and

22:20

how successfully I'm growing it, is the

22:22

Staghorn fern. So the

22:25

Staghorn fern is known as

22:27

the fern that you mount a lot. So

22:29

it's got these strappy elongated fronds

22:31

that almost look like blades of

22:33

a sword. So it's also called

22:35

the sword fern. The fronds also

22:38

look like antlers. So a lot

22:40

of people actually mount Staghorn ferns

22:42

onto boards and it almost looks

22:44

like the vegan antler, like the

22:46

vegan deer head on a mounted

22:48

board. You can kind of

22:50

put the roots in sphagnum moss and then mount

22:52

it on the board, which I think is really

22:54

cool. But I've been growing it in soil. So

22:56

my Staghorn fern came in soil and

22:59

I've been growing it very successfully. The leaves

23:02

do have a layer of fuzz. So don't

23:04

use leaf shine products on them. But I

23:06

gotta say it's growing in indirect light. It's

23:08

growing new leaves because they're epiphytic and they

23:10

grow on trees. Like they are a little

23:12

bit more tolerant of drying out than the

23:15

other ferns that we mentioned today. So they

23:17

are kind of a lower maintenance vibe.

23:19

And I didn't even really know you could grow

23:21

them in soil. So I've really been enjoying it.

23:23

And I encourage you to try growing them as

23:26

well because they're really fun. And also the way

23:28

that they grow, it's like a completely different texture

23:31

to the rest of my plant collection. So like I said,

23:33

I have all my ferns on this bookshelf that I have

23:35

20 other plants on. And the

23:37

little Staghorn fern antlers look really cute amidst all

23:39

of my hoyas and other fern fronds and philodendrons.

23:41

It's just like a really cool other thing. I

23:44

also think if I had to mount it and

23:46

I had to take it off and water it

23:48

and then re like hang the mounted fern, that's

23:50

the way I would kill it. Cause I would

23:52

forget to take the mounting off the

23:54

wall and water it and then put it back. So I

23:57

think for me growing Staghorn ferns in soil is gonna be

23:59

the way that I...