Grow and Care for Tongue Fern

Grow tongue fern in bright shade, in mix that drains, and water when the top is dry. Tongue fern here is Pyrrosia, also sold as felt fern — not hart's-tongue.

Give it bright shade, mix that drains, and let the top dry before you water

Give it an open, bright-shade spot and mix that dries a little between waterings. Soggy mix around the rhizome is the primary cause of rot, and hot midday sun scorches the leathery fronds. [1] Water deeply, then wait until the top feels dry. Overwatering is the usual reason a pot fails. [2] tongue fern uses that same bright shade and drain. Once it is settled, the fronds can curl in a dry spell and then fill again when moisture returns. dragon scales uses the same shade. Keep that tiny fern frost-free on a mount, and do not treat it as a drought plant. [3]

1. Set it in bright shade or morning sun, out of hot midday sun.
2. Water when the top of the mix is dry, then empty the saucer.
3. Grow it in a pot with a hole if you need to move it, or on a slope that sheds water.
4. Bring dragon scales in before a frost. A tongue fern in a hanging basket can stay out where winters stay mild; everywhere else, slide the basket into a garage or a bright room before a hard freeze.

Plant it in orchid bark, or tie it to cork, with the rhizome on the surface

Knock the plant from its nursery pot and set the creeping rhizome on top of the mix, not under it. A buried rhizome rots. Orchid bark keeps air around the roots in a pot. On a slope, a rock, or a tree trunk, the same rhizome can cling to the surface.

1. Choose a pot with a hole, or a piece of cork or bark if you are mounting it.
2. Fill a pot with potting mix cut with orchid bark. Do not pack a fine, wet mix around the rhizome.
3. Lay the rhizome on the surface. On cork, cover it lightly with damp sphagnum and tie it until it holds. [4]
4. Water once to settle, then wait until the top is dry before you water again.

Cut brown fronds at the base

This fern stays evergreen. You do not cut it to the ground. Snip a brown or faded frond at the base in spring or summer, and leave the green ones.

1. In spring or summer, find a frond that is brown, torn, or faded.
2. Cut it at the base, close to the rhizome. Do not leave a long stub.
3. Do not strip a full flush of green fronds at one time.
4. Rake wet fallen leaves off a bed planting so they do not sit on the crown all winter.

Divide a creeping rhizome

The usual way to make more tongue fern is to divide a piece of the creeping rhizome. Unpot a mature clump in spring, cut a section that has fronds and roots, and set that piece on the surface of fresh bark mix. A severed frond will not root. Yellow dust on the underside is spores, not a cutting.

1. In spring, slide the plant out of the pot, or lift a piece from the edge of a clump.
2. Cut the rhizome so each piece has at least two or three fronds and some roots.
3. Lay each piece on orchid-bark mix, or tie it to cork the same way you planted the parent.
4. Keep it in bright shade until new fronds hold. Then water as you would the parent plant.

Not hart's-tongue — and not a dragon-scale Alocasia

Hart's-tongue is Asplenium scolopendrium. It has a smooth strap frond with sori in parallel lines, not a felty cinnamon underside. Tongue fern is Pyrrosia, with star-shaped hairs on the back of the blade. See How to Grow Bird's Nest Fern if the tag is Asplenium.

Dragon-scale Alocasia is a big aroid with thick, puckered leaves. Catalog dragon scales are a tiny fern with round beads of foliage on a creeping rhizome. See How to Grow Alocasia if that is the plant you bought.

Japanese painted fern is a lacy Athyrium, not this leathery tongue. See How to Grow Lady Fern. Bird's-nest fern makes a central nest of straps; this plant runs a rhizome across bark or a slope.

Set the next pot in bright shade, in mix that drains, and divide extras from the creeping rhizome.