The Hampton Gardener: Asparagus fern

A couple of months ago, I received an e-mail from a reader who was bringing me up to date on some shrubs she had chosen to plant in her yard. When she gave me the plant name, she noted the common name instead of the scientific name and it took a few e-mails back and forth before I could figure out what she’d really planted.

The whole experience reminded me of one of my first houseplant experiences, which taught me two lessons. The first was how important it is to know at least the genus of the plants you are working with. The second was what a great houseplant I had found—one that you should grow.

It goes by a number of common names and for one reason or another each is misleading, if descriptive. Some call it the foxtail fern and, yes, in one incarnation I can imagine the stems of the plant resembling a fox’s tail. Others call it emerald feather fern and, it’s true, the foliage can have a striking emerald color and indeed many of the varieties do look ferny. The big problem though is that if you treat this plant like a fern, it’ll disappoint you.

Yet others refer to this plant as the plumosa fern and there are types that have wonderful arching plumes.

The one common name that may be of some help, though, is the asparagus fern because these plants do indeed belong to the asparagus genus, but here again, the common name is misleading. If you treat this plant like the common garden asparagus that we grow for its luscious immature shoots, which thrive in full sun, you’ll again be disappointed.

Still, the fact that we know it is actually in the asparagus family, along with knowing the species of the plant that you have—be it

plumosus

,

densiflorus

,

setaeus

,

falcus

or

retrofractus

—you can get detailed information on that particular plant. But being practical and knowing that this is probably information overload for most of you, let’s just agree that the asparagus fern is not a fern at all and it grows from seeds, not spores like a fern. It also doesn’t grow in a humid forest or shaded garden like a fern. Quite to the contrary, it comes mainly from arid sections of South Africa and can do quite well in bright light.

So, why grow these plants? Well, they need little care and provide great year round indoor color.

Not enough of a reason? OK, they’ll do just fine with two hours of sunlight and when mature can go for a week or more without water.

Need more? Once a good size, they can be left in the same pot for five to 10 years without repotting, they have delightful small, starry white flowers that often appear around Christmas followed by red berries (which can be sown to grow new plants), and when the plant gets too big or you decide that you instantly want more of them, you simply take it out of the pot (well not always so simple), cut the plant from top to bottom into sections, and replant.

Oh, and it likes it on the cool side in the winter just in case you’re saving dollars by keeping the house a little cooler.

Now is this a great plant or what?

My first experience with the asparagus fern was in my neophyte days of indoor gardening. I’d bought the variety sold as the foxtail asparagus (then also known as Asparagus

meyerii

or Myers asparagus) in a 3-inch pot. In no time I had to bump it up to a 6-inch pot and then a 10-inch pot. I had very limited space for plants so eventually I simply stopped bumping it up and much to my delight it accepted its confined fate and slowed down. It would still throw out a new spike every so often, and being pot-bound didn’t stop it from flowering. The one unusual thing that it did, though, was begin to push itself up and out of the pot and these fleshy, hard things that I presumed were roots or tubers began to appear around the pot rim.

Curiosity had gotten the best of me and I decided to experiment. I managed to tease a few of these fleshy roots out of the pot and transplanted them into a smaller pot figuring they’d grow new plants. They rotted. I tried again. They rotted again. Back to the books and after hours of reading and a few phone calls I finally learned that these things I was planting were not reproductive at all and that their purpose was to store water for the dry season in the part of the arid world where the plants had their true roots.

The other thing that I found out through this journey was that you could be virtually merciless to these plants when you want to divide them and make more. The first trick though is getting one of these pot-bound babies out of the pot. They are tenacious pot clingers. You may have to crack a clay pot open to get the plant out and if it’s in a plastic pot you may need to use a hacksaw or utility knife. But once extricated, you take a sharp kitchen knife (I used one of those 10-inch-long sharp-forever types), and cutting from the top or crown and moving downward, simply quarter the plant. Each quarter was placed in the center of another pot and surrounded with potting soil. A couple of months later I had four beautiful pots of asparagus fern.

Seeds for asparagus fern (www.seedman.com/hangbask.htm) can easily be started in 1-inch pots or Jiffy-7 pellets. Sow one or two seeds per pot or pellet and keep it moist and warm, around 70 to 75 degrees, in bright light, but not in direct sun. The seed should be set about a quarter of an inch below the soil surface and soaking the seed for a day prior to planting may help with germination. Seeds should sprout in a week or so and should be left in the small pot until the roots fill the pot, then bump it up to a 3-inch pot and let the journey begin.

I’ve never had a disease problem with these plants and don’t freak out when one of the stems brown or some needles begin to brown and fall. Like all plants, this one will go through some seasonal changes but they’re usually very subtle. If aphids ever become a problem, simply spray with a pyrethrin-based insecticide. If spider mites show up, just put the plant in the shower and spray them off. Keep the plants away from other plants and mealy bugs will never be a problem. And having said all this, I’ve never had insects on mine and the plant I have now must be 15 years old.

You can easily find the foxtail type of asparagus fern in most plant stores, though it may be sold under a variety common names. You’ll know it by the long spikes of upright branches that have flattened leaves, not unlike the foliage of a hemlock tree. There is a 
variety closely related to the foxtail and the leaves have a similar appearance, but the stems, instead of having the form of a small bottle brush or foxtail, are flattened. The plume or

plumosus

varieties are quite different in appearance, but are grown the same way. The stems can be several feet long and will arch to the sides with an airy, wispy plume appearance. This plant does not get as full or bushy as the foxtail type, but it does have a much more exotic stature and will spread much wider if allowed.

There are other types, but they tend to be on the rare side only because they are not as popular. For years we had a rare blue variety that came from Egypt, but it was sold to some lucky Hamptonite years ago when I moved out of the greenhouse at Southampton College. You can find other varieties at botanical garden sales and possibly from specialty growers on the internet.

Should a stem ever become thin or unsightly, simply trim it off at the base and a new one will replace it in several weeks. The new stems emerge as tiny spikes and look exactly like an asparagus spear that you’d buy in the market, just in miniature. During the summer any of these plants will adore being outside in semi shade and all of them can be grown in hanging baskets with all types now being used with annuals and tropicals in seasonal planters. Keep growing.

Andrew Messinger has been a professional horticulturist for more than 30 years. He divides his time between homes and gardens in Southampton, Westchester and the Catskills. E-mail him at: Andrew@hamptongardener.com. The Hampton Gardener is a registered trademark.