In recent years, many gardeners have embraced native plants and for excellent reasons. Well-adapted to our changeable PNW weather, low-maintenance native plants feed and shelter native wildlife, from ...

Eilís O'Neill / KUOW/EarthFix Ellie and Emma are toddlers. They spend a lot of time with their dad Tim Billo in Seward Park, a fragment of old-growth forest on the edge of Lake Washington. Billo’s a ...

M.B.: Sounds like a natural to me. Our native sword ferns are easygoing and not easily upset. Minor or woodland bulbs that tolerate the shade are better choices than traditional tall tulips or ...

WE TEND TO overestimate native plants, expecting them to be easy to grow because they evolved here in the Northwest. But unless you’re living in an undisturbed conifer forest or never-cultivated ...

WHAT: Sword fern, Polystichum munitum, is one of our most useful native ferns and a staple in the Northwest garden. Sword fern is evergreen and forms a shapely, arching mound. WHY PLANT IT: It is ...

Don’t give up on that seemingly uninhabitable part of the yard that’s shaded by towering evergreens. With some creative planning, this tree-filled area can transform from a dark, neglected spot to an ...

Boston fern is a common ornamental plant frequently grown as a houseplant in northern climates such as Greater Columbus. It is a member of a tropical species of sword fern native to humid forests from ...

The genus Polystichum offers us fine evergreen ferns for our gardens. In addition to our native sword fern (P. munitum) there is the Asian saber fern. Its glossy, deep-green fronds with a dark midrib ...

If redwoods, firs and bays are the stars of our Marin forests, then ferns are important members of the supporting cast. The ferns along our shady coastal trails invite us into a deeper appreciation of ...

Fossil records of ferns can be dated back to about 360 million years ago (late Devonian period), with their descendants from 145 million years ago being more closely related to the current day ferns.