Most gardeners look first to flowers for color but I would suggest that you look first to foliage for color and texture and then to flowers because foliage color and texture last much longer than flowers. This reliance on foliage is even more important in the shade garden. Plants that have bright colors are difficult to find for the shade.

Dryopteris erythrosora in a Dutch garden in mid-August

Dryopteris erythrosora in a Dutch garden in mid-August

One exception is Dryopteris erythrosora, the Autumn Fern. As the pink fiddleheads unfurl, they become glossy fronds that are coppery orange. Although they eventually turn a lustrous dark green, they do jazz up the shade and last well into winter. Happily, although most new fronds appear in the spring, if the site is irrigated, they also appear sporadically throughout summer and fall, more true of the cultivar ‘Brilliance’ than the species.

This fern has several other attributes. While it is amenable to moist soil, it will also thrive in dry shade once established. I have planted it in a few different spots, one of which is quite dry but the fern is thriving. Deer leave it alone and its size, only eighteen inches high and wide, means that it can be used in the front or middle of a border. When irrigated, it can become larger.

Autumn Fern is native to Asia but is quite happy and suitable in our landscapes and is hardy to zone 5.

Dryopteris erythrosora with Corydalis lutea, Hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit', Kirengeshoma foliage, Spigelia marilandica in my garden in mid-June

Dryopteris erythrosora with Corydalis lutea, Hydrangea ‘Invincibelle Spirit’, Kirengeshoma foliage, Spigelia marilandica in my garden in mid-June

I love to use this fern as a textural contrast to bold foliage such as Kirengeshoma palmata (which must have moisture to thrive), any of the shade loving hardy geraniums, beside the large leaves of hellebores and in front of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Invincibelle Spirit’. In another location, at the base of an old Pieris japonica, I’ve planted it to hide the bare “bottoms”.

You can’t go wrong with this tough but lovely fern.