Fern hankey pankey

Back in October 2007 my other half and I took a two week holiday to research a garden tour which I was planning for a group from the Hardy Plant Society Mid-Atlantic Group, from Pennsylvania, US of A.

I thought it would be fun to actually plan this tour 'on the ground', so I made my list and we set off to SW England to visit them all and make a choice. We visited many more gardens than we actually needed and weeded out those which didn't come up to scratch. One of those which didn't make it to the final was a small garden in Somerset which rejoiced in the wonderful name of  Darkey Pang Tso Gang - the name, I was told, of a mountain in Bhutan.

While looking round the garden the owner showed me a large fern in her small glasshouse and told me that it had previously been owned by her granny and had been left to her. It was obviously a cyrtomium, but not one I had ever seen, and I begged a small piece of frond which had spore-bearing sori. From those spores I raised over 100 plants, some of which I planted out at Arduaine and were lost. I brought a few to my new house today. I eventually came to the conclusion that the fern was Cyrtomium falcatum 'Butterfieldii', a cultivar which appeared not to be available in the UK that I could find.

None of my plants are as handsome as the original, of picture of which is my extra today. I must contact the lady to see if I can beg a small piece of the real thing!