Christmas Fern
Polystichum acrostichoides
A tough native fern that stays green all winter, with silvery fiddleheads in spring, ideal massed in dry to moist shade, under trees and on slopes, where it holds the soil. Deer and rabbits leave it alone, and songbirds shelter in it. It spreads slowly; give it soil that drains, since winter wet can rot the crown.
- Mature size
- 2 × 2 ft
- 0.6 × 0.6 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
Christmas Fern at its mature size
A mature Christmas Fern grows to about 2 ft tall and 2 ft 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 Christmas Fern looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Upright-arching clump of leathery dark green fronds.
Photos
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Growing Christmas Fern
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Shade garden, slopes, deer resistant, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Christmas Fern, that’s about 2 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 Christmas 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.