The Ferns Are Unfirling!

Last year I made a conscious decision to go for ferns. I have dabbled over the years to some success. The bed of Lady Ferns, Athyrium Filix-femina that I placed along the north side of my garage have flourished. But most of the rest of them have just held their own or fizzled. So last year I went all out to add to existing beds, create new ones, and move some of the hold outs around into more hospitable locations. And here are some of the results:
This little puppy is a Mexican Fern (male), Dryopteris pseudofilix-mas, and I have a handful of them under the fountain in the front yard.
This Japanese Painted Fern, Athyrium niponicum 'Pistum', is a transplant here under the fountain from a colony in the backyard. The origial two plants were purchase at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. And over the years they just floundered until the azaleas usurped their space and then boom, they exploded with progeny that just couldn't cut it where they were. So I also moved some to other locales in the backyard and all the refugees seem to be returning with gusto.
Here is one of my favorites, and gift from my neighbor who said he didn't like the way the fronds always seemed to flop over by mid-summer. Where I have this Cinnamon Fern, Osmunda cinnamonea, it really has never been a problem and now where once stood one, I have three clusters of fronds. Perhaps best of all, the thing blooms with these spectacular stalks of flowers.
This is one of two varieties of ferns that I did not buy to plant in my yard. This was, in fact, a gift from a friend and is a native fern from southern Maryland. Actually a very common wild fern known as the Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, it has been in my yard for years and has just sort of hung on. However, now that it is a part of a much larger fern communities, it honestly seems to be perking up! I know that personifying an practically promordial plant, but hey, I must be doing something right, 'cause it's happy again.
These stalks with their little dark "fist" rising belong to one of several of the Autumn Ferns, Dryoteris erythrosora, the only other longtime success story in my history with ferns. I have had two colonies of these along the front walkway; now, in competition with the Epimedium, epimedium sulphurum, for years. They are born with a distinctive rusty burnish and they end with the same: They remain green, and at times, rusty all year round. I've since established them in the elevated bed around the base of the grand Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum, and in my shady woodland garden in the lower end of my backyard. This is a wonderful fern to start with if you're wanting to get into growing them.
These last two come from the woodland garden I'm working on in the lower end of my backyard. And this trio of Tassel Ferns, Polystichum polyblepharum, have made me practically wet with excitment. The picture doesn't do the robust beautify of their frond mounds justice. They are huge and swollen with new growth that threatens to overpower one another. They are going to be magnificent in full growth, and I cannot wait to experience it.
And here are some of their neighboring Ostrich Ferns, Matteuccia struthiapteris. I put in two last year, and this spring I am counting nothing short of seven mounds appearing! Another triumph for ferns. Honestly, I thought this was a risky thing to do, but now I am feeling really excited about all of the ways ferns will be defining and transforming my gardens.

Besides the ones I've pictured here, I also have colonies of Japanese Holly Fern, Crytomium falcatum, the afore mentioned Lady Fern, Athyrium filix-femina, Sensitive Fern, Onoclea sensibilis, which in all fairness I've yet to see any sign of this year (however, their colony is presently inundated with Mayapples, Podophyllum paltatum, Maiden Hair Fern, Adiantum pedatum, which is the other fern that I've never bought (In fact, all of them are volunteers that come from who knows where? Seriously. They arrive in rocky places, but how, I don't know. I had two last year which I transplanted and which then died, and I just saw another one three days ago.), a solitary Hart's Tongue Fern, Phyllitis scolopendrium, and a mystery fern that first arrived by accident with the order of Lady Ferns, and which I'm fairly certain is a Dixie Wood Fern, Dryopteris x australis.