by Diane Sussman
When staghorn fern people get together, the level of braggadocio can reach the hyperbolic excesses of fisherpeople swapping fish stories. The grandmother with the nine-foot specimen. The spore that grew to a 30-pound plant. The fern that encircled a giant tree, giving new meaning to the term tree-hugger. Never mind that the devotees are incapable of producing any of these legendary plants. "I don't know what ever happened to that plant," they say. "It belonged to my grandmother." Or "I just saw it once, in the forest."
Separate the fact from the tall talk and the staghorn still stacks up as a wonder plant. Virtually nothing--not hacking, not dropping, not maiming, not starving, not freezing--seems to kill this bizarre, rubbery, prehistoric plant.
Those who have tried, know. "I had an absolutely beautiful one, three or four feet, that I dropped on the ground and broke into pieces," said Kim Haworth, gardener at Sunset magazine. "I just scooped up the pieces and gave them to friends. That's the thing. You break them and the only thing that happens is that you have a bunch of great gifts."
First you have to like the look of a plant with antlers and wacky sidewinding tendrils. "I love them and I think everyone should love them," declares Hildegard Jackson, owner of California Fern nursery in East Palo Alto. "They are sculptural. They are weird. They are wonderful."
They are, in fact, Platycerium bifurcatum, one of 18 species in the Platycerium genus. Native to Australia and New Guinea, they go back 500 million years. With this kind of longevity, it's easy to see how they can withstand the capriciousness of human care-giving.
Like orchids and bromeliads, staghorn ferns are epiphtyes, which means they live on other plants (or, in the modern world, on boards, cork or in baskets of sphagum moss) drawing nutrients from air and rainwater.
In nature, staghorns plant themselves on trees and grow sideways, sending out fronds as catcher's mitts for the small airborne leaves and animal droppings that sustain it. These antler-like fronds, called fertile fronds, grow spores on the underside.
In the garden, grow staghorn ferns by sticking the root ball in sphagnum moss and attaching it to a log, tree, cork or piece of wood with wire. Don't worry if the underpinnings show--it won't be long before the fronds completely obscure the infrastructure.
As hardy as staghorns are, they do require a minimum of care and understanding.
Although staghorns have been known to freeze and rise again, they do best if nighttime temperatures are about 50-55 degrees. If a freezing spell seems imminent, move the plant indoors. If the plant lives indoors year-round, keep it under a skylight or in a window with plenty of filtered light.
Keep the fern on the dry side, watering only when the moss is dry to the touch. Once a week, soak the plant thoroughly in a bucket, sink or bathtub. Whatever you do, do not overwater. Over-watering can cause the base fronds, which form a dense sponge to retain water, to get soggy and rot.
Grow new plants by harvesting the offspring. To do this, cut into the base frond with a sharp knife (or drop the thing, as Haworth did), making sure you get some roots from the mother plant.
Feed occasionally--or don't feed at all. As Haworth says, "They grow with fertilizer; they grow without fertilizer. They just thrive."
Does nothing plague these hardy ancients? Well, yes. Mealybugs and scale. Eliminate mealybugs by rubbing the fronds with a cotton ball dipped in alcohol. To treat scale, use dormant oil.
The only thing left is to neglect them. "They thrive on neglect," said Haworth.
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