Grow and Care for Polypody

Grow polypody in shade and soil that drains. Polypody is Polypodium — a low fern that creeps by a scaly rhizome on the surface.

Give it shade, soil that drains, and keep the rhizome on the surface

Polypody is an epiphyte in the wild. It lives on mossy rocks, old walls, and tree bases, where rain and leaf debris feed the rhizome, so a garden site has to drain the same way. [1] common polypody and rock polypody both want deep or part shade and soil that is moist but not soggy. [2] Most kinds in this catalog are left alone by deer. Keep the rhizome in the open; a buried stem rots. For which kind you bought, see Types of Polypody.

Water the first season, then let the surface dry

Keep the soil evenly moist until the plant is established. After that, water when the surface is dry. A short dry spell is easier on the rhizome than a wet pocket. licorice fern drops its fronds in hot, dry weather and greens up with cool rain — that rest is normal, so do not flood it to “rescue” brown leaves. [3] leatherleaf polypody wants the same shade and drainage, with shelter from drying wind on the coast.

Cut yellow fronds at the rhizome, and leave the green winter leaves

Polypody is not a shrub you shape. Snip yellow, brown, or broken fronds at the rhizome with clean scissors, and leave healthy green fronds in place. Winter-green kinds keep leaves through the cold months, so do not cut a green clump to the ground in late winter the way you would a deciduous fern.

1. Wait until a frond is yellow or brown, or until summer-dormant kinds drop their leaves on their own.
2. Cut that frond at the rhizome. Do not nick the creeping stem.
3. Leave green winter fronds on rock-cap and leatherleaf kinds.
4. Do not cut licorice fern or California polypody in late winter while the fronds are still green; they rest later, when the dry season hits.

Grow it in a shallow pot if you need a container

A container works when you need polypody on a patio or a wall, but this is still a hardy outdoor fern, not a tropical houseplant. Use a shallow, wide pot with drainage holes so the rhizome can creep on the mix.

1. Choose a wide pot with drainage holes, not a deep tub that stays wet at the bottom.
2. Fill it with a loose mix of leaf mold, bark, and grit or perlite. Do not use a dense indoor potting soil that stays soggy.
3. Set the rhizome on the mix, with roots going down. Do not bury the stem.
4. Water when the surface is dry, and keep the pot in shade. Leatherleaf polypody can trail from a hanging basket outdoors in the same mix.

If the tag says blue star fern or golden polypody, that is a different plant — see the lookalike heading below, not this pot mix.

Not the blue star fern — and not resurrection fern

The houseplant sold as golden polypody or blue star fern is Phlebodium aureum, not Polypodium. Tags sometimes still say Polypodium aureum. [4] Phlebodium has blue-green, softly lobed fronds and fuzzy golden rhizomes. It is frost-tender and is grown indoors in bright indirect light. Polypody proper has narrower, darker, leathery fronds and lives outdoors in shade and rocky or gritty soil.

Resurrection fern is Pleopeltis, formerly listed as Polypodium polypodioides. It curls tight in drought, then opens after rain. Rock polypody does not do that trick. Rabbit-foot fern is usually Davallia, a different houseplant with furry rhizomes. If a search for those names sent you here, you wanted the houseplant, not this woodland mat.

If the fronds scorched, the site was too sunny or the rhizome sat wet — move it to shade that drains, and leave the stem on the surface.