Fern Issue

[sanzfrancisco]

I have these lovely ferns in my yard, and usually there are lush, green, and sturdy. Unfortunately lately, they look sick. The fronds are turning over and going grayish. Does anyone know what the problem could be??

 

[Beth_B]

I'm no expert (and those are lovely ferns) but when you said "going grayish" I wonder if it could be some sort of mildew or fungus?

 

[Corzhens]

I would see my husband trimming the fern in our garden when we had one. But he had removed it in favor of the citrus calamansi. In your case, it might be because of too much roots already so you may need to replant some in another location. Trimming the fern gives way for new roots and the old roots would die. But untrimmed fern means the roots will be a lot and crowded.

 

[karadawn]

They look lovely to me. But I have to agree that it may be it's just running out of root room. Try trimming them back or like mentioned, thinning them out a bit so they'll have more room. I know there are a lot of perennial plants that will start to look "sad" when they are in need of transplanting or thinning. I have to do that with tiger lilies and hosta just about every spring. I'm assuming you live in a warm-all-year-round kind of area?

 

[Sheal]

They are probably dying back for the winter months and will produce new shoots next spring.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Your ferns look like the ran out of room to grow, There are some that seem to be reaching for more light, ferns send out runners as the grow and if you don't keep them in check, they will find cracks in your foundation and can cause damage to the house as they grow, I thin my fern garden about every 3 years so the don't get to far out of hand.

 

[IcyBC]

At my sister's condo, these fern were growing out of hand by her front entrance door, and they need to be trimmed up! When the first got bushy like yours, we had to thin them out by just rooted up some part of it. It seemed to do the trick and it looked so much neater.