Ferns may be without flowers, but in their own special way many of them do have color. Lives there a gardener who does not find joy and inspiration as the garden awakens in springtime? Hepaticas, daffodils, primroses, and rhodies, usually in that order, bring life to the garden as well as the gardener. Foliage, while more subtle, enriches the springtime composition as well. And what are ferns but foliage? Fern lovers take delight in the unfurling new fronds that invite inspection and appreciation. Sturdy Polystichum crosiers emerge cloaked in coats of silver scales offering the garden design an especially striking duet in combined plantings with the matching whitish new foliage on indumentum-clad rhododendrons. Dryopteris decorate their fiddleheads with scales in blackish, rust, and bronze hues, elegant with backlighting. Many species (although strangely none from Europe) unfurl with colorful new growth.

These include the statuesque Dryopteris wallichiana (Wallich’s wood fern) with vibrant yellow to orange fronds accented by dark scales. The lower-growing, 2-ft. (60-cm) D. lepidopoda (sunset fern) displays satiny, warm coral-colored spring foliage, while D. erythrosora, the popular autumn fern and its cultivars, unfurl in a rosy copper frost that in time fades to rich green. Dryopteris koidzumiana, new in cultivation, has saturated, velvety russet new growth. The sturdy little Blechnum penna-marina, an 8-in. (20-cm) creeper, has red new growth as well. It is especially pronounced when planted in the sun where it will display the compact fronds typically seen in its alpine homelands of Chile and New Zealand. For this species, shade encourages rangy growth. On a larger scale new growth on several woodwardias and a number of the taller New Zealand blechnums is suffused with blood-red vibrancy.

The best of the woodwardias (Woodwardia unigemmata and W. orientalis var. formosana) may be on the tender side but are unfailingly ornamental. Give them affectionate care which includes protective attention in the depths of the bleak midwinter. All of the above are evergreens and join with other colorful individuals described in the text. Several common deciduous Japanese athyriums offer distinctive color that lasts throughout the season.Athyrium niponicum‘Pictum’, the popular and variable Japanese painted fern, is indeed painted in pastel shades of gray, pink, pale green, some blue, and wine. It is extremely hardy and gives life to somber shade.Names are being given to an ever-increasing, and probably excessive, number of cultivars including, among others, ‘Silver Falls’, ‘Burgundy Lace’, ‘Ursula’s Red’, and a crested form,‘Apple Court’. In addition, ‘Ghost’ and ‘Branford Beauty’, two presumed hybrids with the American lady fern, add a soft gray contrast to dark green compositions. All make a stunning statement when grouped together. (For additional impact add a plant or two of Brunnera macrophylla ‘Looking Glass’ or ‘Jack Frost’ to the composition.) While less flamboyant, the matte fronds on Athyrium otophorum (eared lady fern) bring a refreshing combination of lime foliage suffused with plum highlights.Athyrium yokoscense with its understated silver foliage adds a welcome quiet touch when centered among brilliant companions.