Here is my Platycerium bifurcatum, the Staghorn fern
It was a present from my mom.

They are so beautiful. I remember having one in our living room as a kid. Since moving to Southwest Florida, you see them everywhere outside and some of them are HUGE! Most people hang them in a tree for some filtered shade.

Here is mine. If you had to buy one this size at a nursery it would be very expensive; I was lucky enough to get this one in a garage sale.....

I was tod that if you can have them outside, have them high up so people cant steal them, but who would even be able to lift them?

They are beautiful!!

Two people and a ladder got that one up there... and people do steal them by driving a pickup truck under them, and then cutting the chain. These can be worth $ 1000 or more when they get really big.

Wow!!

I've killed a couple of these so I won't get anymore such a shame I love them so much!

I think my house is too dry in the winter and I keep the heat way down doesn't seem to hurt my Aroids but the ferns don't like it they made it in the summer and looked so beautiful then just went down hill after moving them in the house.

Yours is beautiful dutchlady do you have to bring it in the house do the temps go down in that part of Fl. and how in the world if you did have to bring it in would you get it on the wall it's so big

That one stays outside year round.
You are right: dry air is lethal to these plants. Misting them daily - or hanging them in the bathroom, usually remedies that.

Platycerium bifurcatum develops as a cluster of plants. If they need to be moveable all you do is split the plants up into manageable sizes. If they're in a permanent position they can be left to grow into a very large cluster.

It's Platycerium superbum that is a single plant that grows huge and can't be split up.

some of my stags in the trees

Fred said:....stags in the trees

Sounds like a cartoon. I'm seeing a deer blind up in a tree, occupied by ...

I had one growing in my bathroom for several years before it died. Kind of heart wrenching to see it go. They're very cool plants.

Bringing up an old topic wanting so badly to help my $1 Lowe's clearance Staghorn Fern to look as good as the ones in those posts! I need a little help.

It was of course in a pot with the worst soil! Mostly peat with a sprinkling of perlite. I pulled the peat apart and couldn't find any obvious roots. But the peat was wet, wet, wet. I let it dry out over night. I ran out of orchid bark. So right now it is sitting in a coir-lined, wire basket with a bunch of perlite with some potting soil.

What should I do to help it along? I don't particularly want to mount it. TIA

@drdawg

For potted ones, Cheryl, I use my custom potting mix (2 parts milled sphagnum moss, 2 parts Black Kow, and 1 part super-coarse perlite). I add a handful of Osmacote to every 2 gallons or so of mix. To every 5 gallons of that mix, I then add a gallon of chopped cypress further "open-up" the potting soil.

Thanks @drdawg. I know they are epiphytes. What do the roots look like? I just saw very tiny roots mangled within the peat, nothing that might be able to grab on to a tree or wood that's for sure. I didn't take of the peat for fear of disturbing it if it was rooting in that awful peat..

The roots on an older plant will be thin but tough and often dense. Young, small plants won't have those fibrous roots but grown in well-draining, open potting soil, they can fill a small pot. Just keep in mind that these roots are for anchorage and not nourishment. You won't do any particular damage to the plant if you severe some roots.

Oddly enough, I am presently chatting with another "Cheryl" who lives in FL and wants to purchase some orchids. At first I thought that this might be you, but when I looked at her location, I knew otherwise.

I should be putting up the hoophouse, but I wanted to stop and show you my staghorn that gets minimal care and grows in a wire basket with no soil. I just place the basket into a metal stand.





I have another that is in a pot, but the soil hasn't been amended in years. Both ferns live under the oaks. They aren't really fussy.

I think you may have two varieties here, Sandi.

Yes, they're cousins! Neither get a lot of care.

Stags are incredibly easy to grow, particularly for those who have sub-tropical like conditions. I think that stag with the narrow fronds is the "French, aka Silver Staghorn", the Platycerium veitchii 'Lemoinei'. This particular variety is more drought-tolerant than even the bifurcatum.

Great growing Sandi

Thanks @ardesia! They grow in spite of me!

@drdawg It is a veitchii, but I lost the tag to the *#%{¥ squirrels long ago.

As an aside: One of our garden club members set out to collect one of every staghorn varieties. She had over 20 that she ordered from the Internet. I believe she said there were 28. She brought the last one she ordered to a mtg. one night. She had paid $200. for it. It was small and common. It was the first time she had been burned ordering on the Net.