Athyrium 'Niponicum Metallicum'

• Low maintenance plant
• Unusual, metallic silvery foliage with finely-textured fronds
• Fully hardy perennial – returns every spring
• Steadily spreading to furnish awkward shady spots, without taking over
• Effective with nearby woodland bulbs like snowdrops and crocuses

Watch the contrasting and striking leaf-like fronds unfurl from hardy Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum metallicum). Every frond shows off metallic grey patterning, stunning and almost luminescent in shady spots of your garden. The fronds start to curl open in spring and make an effective backdrop to surrounding spring-flowering bulbs like snowdrops and dog tooth violets. Planted near other ferns you can build up a fern garden in just one season and fill in awkward shady spots in your garden.

We recommend that you position your fern in rich soil, adding well-rotted farm manure to give your Japanese painted fern lots of nutrients and rich soil for the roots to thrive in. Every autumn the fronds die back to leave a base which you can leave over winter. In spring new fronds will emerge and curl open.