Japanese Painted Fern
Athyrium niponicum
An easy shade fern with silvery fronds washed in purple or red that light up a shady border, woodland or pond edge. It slowly builds a clump without spreading aggressively, and deer and rabbits leave it alone. Its colour is best in light shade, since too much sun washes it out, and it likes moist, rich soil.
- Mature size
- 2 × 2 ft
- 0.6 × 0.6 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium
Japanese Painted Fern at its mature size
A mature Japanese Painted Fern grows 2 feet tall and just as 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 Japanese Painted Fern looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Nov–Apr
Deciduous fern, gone after frost.
In leaf · May–Oct
Arching silver-gray fronds with burgundy-maroon stems and midribs.
Growing Japanese Painted Fern
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Shade garden and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Japan, Korea, and China
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Japanese Painted 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 Japanese Painted Fern in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other ferns
Autumn FernJapanese Painted Fern
Christmas Fern
Japanese Holly FernAll drawn to the same scale.