Common Name: Japanese painted fern
Type: Fern
Family: Dryopteridaceae
Zone: 3 to 8
Native Range: Eastern Asia
Height: 1 to 1.5 feet
Spread: 1.5 to 2 feet
Bloom Time: Non-flowering
Bloom Description: Non-flowering
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flowers: Flowers not Showy
Leaves: Colorful
Tolerates: Dense Shade, Rabbits

Culture
Easily grown in humusy, organically rich, medium moisture, well-drained soil in part shade to full shade. Best sited in sheltered locations. Best frond color in light shade. Soil must not be allowed to dry out. Divide clumps in early spring. Naturalizes well by short, branching rhizomes and can form dense colonies in optimum growing conditions.

Noteworthy Characteristics
Japanese painted fern is one of the most popular cultivated ferns. It is a deciduous fern with a weeping habit which typically grows to 18″ tall and features a slowly spreading clump of triangular, variegated fronds (to 20″ long). Fronds are a soft grayish-green with an overlay of silvery hues accented by contrasting dark maroon midribs. The spore-producing structure called sori are located in a herringbone pattern along the veins of the pinnules. Synonymous with and sometime sold as Athyrium goeringianum ‘Pictum’.

Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.

Garden Uses
Woodland gardens, shade gardens or shaded border fronts. Also effective in shaded areas along streams or ponds.