Growing Them Successfully
This book describes and illustrates 193 Australian ferns - including a few from Lord Howe Island - which can be grown easily in the garden or greenhouse, without the need for special equipment or years of experience.
The first section of the book includes a description of the parts of a fern, interesting details of their evolution, snippets about ferns from history and folk lore, and their uses in the human environment. The second section describes how to grow them, gives tips on potting mixes and the use of fertilisers, the elimination of pests and weeds, and tells how to pot up, plant and maintain ferns in the garden. For those who wish to try their hand at propagation, notes on methods of culture from spores, rhizome division and layering bulbils are included.
There is also a simple botanical description and photograph of each fern followed by recommendations for growing at home. A map of growing zones acts as a guide to where each fern may best be grown. An interesting extra is the translation of botanical names into English, with an explanation of the name's meaning, the intention of the fern author when conferring the name, and a simple phonetic guide to pronunciation.
