Cyrtomium Japanese Holly Fern is an herbaceous perennial offering summer interest. Long-lived, grown for its ornamental foliage, this handsome fern has stiff, arching, glossy, dark green fronds that resemble holly branches with their thick, leathery, sickle-shaped pinnae.
Highly adaptable, Cyrtomium Japanese Holly Fern is evergreen in mild winter climates. It has a dense, spreading habit, forming an open vase-shaped clump, and moderate growth rate. It makes an excellent container plant or underplanting, groundcover, or edging for shady woodland and rain gardens. It can also be grown as a houseplant.
Easy to grow, Cyrtomium Japanese Holly Fern prefers full to dappled shade and humusy, moist, well-drained soils. The plant is heavy shade and salt tolerant and deer and rabbit resistant.
Cyrtomium falcatum, also known as Japanese holly fern, is native to Hawaii, India, eastern Asia, and southern Africa. Spores are easily carried by wind, and species plants have escaped gardens and naturalized in areas of the southeastern United States.
