Plant Foxtail Fern!
The Foxtail Fern, Asparagus meyeri, is one of the more popular plants here at the nursery. It is a versatile perennial in that it can live in the shade as well as in full sun. It does well planted in both the landscape and in containers.
The Foxtail Fern has bright green plumes that grow en masse and form a clump which fills space in the landscape or spills over in hanging baskets and containers.
It thrives in the shade, part sun and the full sun.
Note- If planted in the full sun you will want to give it additional water.
This is the Foxtail Fern planted in a container in our shade area. It is planted alongside the Crinum Lily, Variegated Hearts and Flowers and Mexican Heather. In this container, it serves as a filler, but could easily be a thriller as well. This is just one example of a planting with Foxtail Fern. The bright green plumes are a nice palette to mix other colors with. Have fun with it! Mix up the textures and colors! In this pot, we choose the broad leaves of the Crinum, the small round leaves of the Hearts and Flowers and the rough, dark green leaves of the Mexican Heather.
Below you see the Foxtail Fern planted alongside the Variegated Ginger and the Variegated Dianella. All three of these are roughly the same height. You can still plant these together, just plant on a slope as shown here. The planting has a path running through the center which makes for a nice, lush walkway. The three of these together give off a delightful tropical feel.
It is a good idea when planning the design for your landscape to contrast the colors for visual interest.
The green and yellow of the Ginger pair nicely with the bright green Foxtail Fern as well as compliment the white and green of the Dianella. This particular bed is an example of a shade bed, but it could also be planted in the sun. This mix would do well here in the Austin area, with proper irrigation.
In the Austin and Dripping Springs areas, we recommend to protect it during our cold winters to err on the safe side. If it does die back it is pretty slow to come back around, so best to throw a cover on it or bring it inside.
The Foxtail Fern is not actually a fern, but is an Asparagus.
There are several Asparagus that offer the flexibility of going from sun to shade. The Asparagus plumosa, also known as Asparagus setaceus, is another favorite. The Asparagus setaceus can live indoors as an indoor plant or be planted in the landscape directly into the ground or in a container. It has very delicate looking foliage, but is actually really tough!
One unique feature about this plant is its vining/ crawling habit . We have one planted here at the nursery in our shade bed. It comes back year after year and grows into the panels of the gate and up on the column.
There are various types of Asparagus, and we only talked about a few here. Not to be overlooked is the Ming Fern which is a more drought tolerant Asparagus and likes the sun. And we can’t talk about Asparagus without mentioning the “old school” Asparagus springeri, which is a nice shrubby form that can go from shade to sun.
All in all, the Asparagus are an excellent choice to soften up spots in your landscape design, home or container. The green, wispy foliage is sure to brighten up your area. Plant Foxtail Fern as well as any of the Asparagus for low maintenance, easy choice in your home and garden.
