memories of the Hall of Mosses Trail in the Hoh River Valley... memories of Bracken Ferns growing at Granite Falls in the Cascade Range... memories of a gargantuan Staghorn Fern in the first greenhouse I worked in... memories of huge ferns dwarfed by the Sequoia trees that shaded them... memories of canoeing down the Illinois River past drifts of ferns on the banks... memories of ferns at the base of a giant Gunnera in the quarry garden of Queen Elizabeth Park... memories of ferns in Susan Ryley's garden in Victoria, B.C.

And I get to enjoy those memories every time I see the ferns in my own small shade garden. Louise Beebee Wilder, in her 1928 book 'The Pleasures and Problems of a Rock Garden', expressed it well when she said, "Ferns are a sure investment in pleasure, making of the shaded garden that is well furnished with them a cool retreat in the heat of summer days. Few plants can be naturalized with finer effect."

In the next few weeks, after the bulbs are planted, I'm going to be moving some Heucheras out of the shade garden into areas with more direct light. When that happens spaces will be opened in the shade garden that will, I think, receive more ferns. One or two more Japanese Tassel Ferns are a must-have. A Dyce's Holly Fern would be nice... they get quite large even here. A Sunset Fern [Dryopteris lepidopoda] would lend some color in spring. And a Golden Scale Male Fern [Dryopteris affinis] for the show its unfurling fronds puts on.

One of my friends, and a fellow gardener, doesn't care much for my ferns. She summed them up by saying, "They come up and, well, that's it." That's not quite it at all, of course. I do beg to differ with that opinion. Ferns are serene... and they are memories...................................