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"... at this moment of earth history, about 330 million years ago, the first land plants began to creep out of marshes and estuaries to lay green fingers upon the shore and thence to spread swiftly across the earth's gray, cheerless face.
For perhaps a billion years the marine plants had drifted virtually unchanged in the primeval seas. Then astonishingly, in a space of 50 million years, after the late Silurian upheaval and during the Devonian period [325-280 million years ago], they evolved from simple seaweeds into great cone-bearing trees, carpeting the lowlands with ferns and leafy plants, transfiguring the naked hills." Pg. 96
"During the first two Mesozoic subdivisions, the Triassic [205-165 million years ago] and the Jurassic [165-135 million years ago], the climate grew slowly less severe. In the plant world true conifers [Walchia, Araucarioxylon, Voltzia, and Araucarites] joined cycads [Palaeocycas, Macrotaeniopteris] and cycadeoids [Wielandiella, Cycadella, Cycadeoiden, Williamsonia] on the hillsides and plains." Pg. 99

The Evolution of Terrestrial Plants: A Synopsis from The World We Live In, Edited & Published by Life Magazine, 1955 [Don't laugh at the date... this is still an excellent book.]

Athyrium 'Ghost' [Ghost Fern]



Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum' [Japanese Painted Fern]


Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata the King' [Golden Scaled Male Fern]



Dryopteris erythrosora [Autumn Fern]





Dryopteris felix-mas 'Parsley' [Parsley Fern]


Dryopteris lepidopoda [Sunset Fern]




Dryopteris remota [Scaly Wood Fern]


Dryopteris tokyoensis [Japanese Wood Fern]


Onoclea sensibilis [Sensitive Fern]




Polystichum polyblepharum [Japanese Tassel Fern]











Polystichum x dycei [Dyce's Wood Fern]


These ferns were photographed in a garden in Oklahoma City in the heart of the Southern Great Plains. All of them are growing in the shade of a Silver Maple [Acer saccharinum]... a semi-mature specimen with a 26 inch trunk diameter. This tree would have been one of my last choices under which to create a shade garden... but sometimes you need to just take what you are offered and improve it.
Silver Maples have shallow, seriously aggressive root systems that heave sidewalks and driveways. They greedily absorb the nutrients in the soil and they are truly thirsty trees. So when planting
these ferns in the shade offered by this tree pay extra attention to hole preparation.
Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball, but no deeper than the root ball. Amend the removed soil generously with organic matter. Adding "water saving crystals" to the soil is recommended, as long as the crystals are recommended for use "in ground." Avoid heavy clay and soils that drain poorly.
The best recommendation I can make, however, is to not be afraid of trying ferns in your garden. They are more hardy than you think. In my garden this summer they performed more admirably than many of my larger leaved perennials. While perennials like Hostas and Heucheras suffered damage from hailstorms and excess heat, most of the ferns waded through the same conditions without much damage.
In John Mickel's terrific book "Ferns for American Gardens" all of these ferns are listed as easy, making them excellent starter plants for your garden. To be more specific, I would suggest Autumn Fern and Japanese Painted Fern as the best ferns to "experiment" with... in addition to being very hardy they are both very beautiful.