Autumn Fern
Dryopteris erythrosora
A handsome shade fern whose new fronds unfurl coppery pink before turning green, an easy accent, groundcover or pot plant for woodland and shade gardens, and rabbits leave it alone. It wants steadily moist, rich, acid soil and shelter from drying wind, and it can naturalize beyond the garden.
- Mature size
- 2 × 2.5 ft
- 0.6 × 0.8 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5b–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Part shade to full shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
Autumn Fern at its mature size
A mature Autumn Fern grows 1.5 to 2 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Autumn Fern looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Dec–Mar
Evergreen but tired: fronds dull green, partly flattened, tips browned.
New growth · Apr–May
New fronds glossy coppery pink-orange among the older deep green ones.
In leaf · Jun–Nov
Glossy deep green fronds, a few coppery.
Photos
Growing Autumn Fern
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Groundcover, shade garden, and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China, Japan, and Korea
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Autumn Fern, that’s about 2.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Autumn Fern in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other ferns
Autumn Fern
Christmas Fern
Japanese Holly Fern
Japanese Painted FernAll drawn to the same scale.