Grow and Care for Button Fern

Grow button fern in bright indirect light, and let the top of the mix dry before you water again. Button fern is Pellaea rotundifolia. Shops also say cliff brake. A lemon button fern is a Nephrolepis, not this plant.

Give it bright indirect light, and let the top of the mix dry before you water

Button fern is Pellaea rotundifolia, a compact evergreen fern. In the wild it sits on cliffs and in rocky crevices in New Zealand and Australia, so it wants a mix that drains and a little air around the roots, not a bog. [1] Botanists now often file it as Hemionitis rotundifolia. Set it in bright, indirect light. An east window is enough. A little morning sun is fine. Hot midday sun bleaches and scorches those round leaflets.

Water thoroughly, then let the top inch of mix feel dry before you water again. Water until it runs out, then empty the saucer. Yellow, wilted fronds usually mean the mix stayed wet. [2] This fern does not need the high humidity that a maidenhair or Boston fern wants. Moderate room air is enough. A pebble tray or humidifier helps in a heated winter room, because that air is dry, not because the plant is a rainforest fern. Keep it off a heater or a cooling vent. Feed at quarter to half strength once a month in spring and summer. Skip fertilizer in winter, when growth slows.

1. Place it in bright, indirect light. Move it out of hot midday sun if the leaflets bleach.
2. Water thoroughly, then let the top inch of mix dry. Empty the saucer after you water.
3. Keep it in a warm room, off a heater. Moderate air is enough; raise humidity only if winter heat crisps the leaflet edges.
4. Feed at quarter to half strength once a month from spring through summer. Stop feeding in winter.

Cut brown fronds at the base, and bring the pot in before a freeze

This fern does not need pruning like a shrub. When an outer frond browns or yellows, cut it at the base, next to the rhizome, with clean scissors. Leave healthy green fronds on the plant. Do not shear across a green leaflet to tidy the tip; that cut edge browns again. [3] Division is a separate job on How to Propagate Button Fern.

It will not take a freeze. Grow it as a houseplant, or bring a patio pot in before a freeze. Water less from fall to spring, when growth slows, and skip fertilizer until spring. Keep the room above about 50°F. A sheltered frost-free rock garden can hold it outdoors; a pot left out through a freeze will not.

1. Cut a brown or yellow frond at the base, next to the rhizome. Leave green fronds on the plant.
2. Bring a patio pot in before a freeze. Keep it above about 50°F.
3. Water less in winter, and stop feeding until spring.

Use a mix that drains, a shallow pot, and wait to repot

Use a pot with a drainage hole and a loose houseplant mix with perlite or grit so water can leave. A shallow pot fits the roots better than a deep tub that stays wet at the bottom. [4] Wait to repot until the roots fill the pot or the mix has broken down, usually every couple of years in spring. Step up only one size, about an inch or two wider. A hanging basket works if you want the fronds to trail, but the same mix and dry-top water still apply.

1. Choose a pot with a drainage hole, only a little wider than the root ball, and not much deeper than it needs.
2. Fill it with a loose houseplant mix with perlite or grit. Set the roots in the mix. Do not pack it, and do not bury the crown deep.
3. Water until it runs out, then empty the saucer. Set it back in bright, indirect light.
4. Wait to repot until spring, when the pot is crowded or the mix has broken down. Go up one size.

Not a lemon button fern, and not a purple cliff brake

A shop tag that says button fern is sometimes lemon button fern, Nephrolepis cordifolia 'Duffii': small round leaflets with a faint lemon scent when you crush them, and it wants an evenly moist mix, more like a Boston fern. Do not treat this Pellaea as that plant. If the tag is lemon button fern, see How to Grow Boston Fern for Nephrolepis care.

Button fern has dark, leathery round leaflets on wiry reddish-brown stalks, and it wants the mix to dry a little between waterings. Purple cliff brake is Pellaea atropurpurea: a native North American limestone fern with blue-gray leaflets and hairy purple-black stalks. It is not this New Zealand houseplant. Maidenhair is Adiantum: finer, fan-shaped leaflets on black wire. See How to Grow Maidenhair Fern if that is the plant you bought.

Keep it in bright indirect light, and let the top of the mix dry before you water. Divide a clump in spring if you want a second plant.