Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum'
Japanese Painted Fern
- Type
- Fern
- Hardiness
- USDA Zones 4–9
- Sun
- Part Shade, Full Shade
- Soil
- Moist, Well-drained
- Mature size
- Height 8–12 Inches · Spread 10–12 Inches
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Seasonality
- Dies back
This variety is no actively in production in our propagation house and may not return to our catalogue. We maintain this page purely for reference and archival purposes. If you would like to grow this plant, tell us. Your interest helps guide what we bring back.
For a larger installation or commercial project, write hello@woodlanders.net.
Few ferns light a shady bed like the Japanese painted fern. Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum' lays soft, arching, triangular fronds in cool silver and gray-green, washed with burgundy along the midribs and stems, a living watercolor for the woodland floor. Named the Perennial Plant of the Year in 2004, this is one of the most popular and most beautiful of all colored ferns.
A low, slowly spreading deciduous fern, the Japanese painted fern colors best with a little direct morning sun, though, like most ferns, the painted fern wants rich, humusy, moist soil in shade or part shade. Easy and forgiving, the fern weaves through a shaded planting at eight to twelve inches, deepening in color as the fronds mature. Native to Japan and eastern Asia.
Plant the Japanese painted fern at the front of a shaded border, along a woodland path, in a trough, or massed as a shimmering groundcover, lovely against the dark greens of hostas and hellebores or the gold of Hakone grass. The silver fronds catch and hold light in the dimmest corners, and deer leave them alone.
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