Features and Growing Tips

Note: Each live plant is unique and may differ from the photo while maintaining its beauty. Plants come in a plastic pot; other items in images are not included.

Landscape Qualities

Godzilla Giant Japanese Painted Fern is a dense herbaceous fern with a shapely form and gracefully arching fronds. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect.

Ornamental Qualities

Godzilla Giant Japanese Painted Fern is primarily valued in the garden for its cascading habit of growth. Its attractive ferny bipinnately compound leaves emerge antique red in spring | turning olive green in color with showy silver variegation throughout the season. The purple stems are very colorful and add to the overall interest of the plant.

Planting and Growing

Godzilla Giant Japanese Painted Fern will grow to be about 3 feet tall at maturity | with a spread of 6 feet. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant | individual plants should be spaced approximately 3 feet apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground | not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a slow rate | and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 15 years. As an herbaceous perennial | this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter | and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It prefers to grow in moist to wet soil | and will even tolerate some standing water. It is particular about its soil conditions | with a strong preference for rich | acidic soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution | and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid | and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals | so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets. It can be propagated by division; however | as a cultivated variety | be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Plant Facts

Prefers partial shade to shade

Deer Resistant

Keep moisture level moist to wet

Mature Size 3'Hx6'W

Zone 3a

Known to be toxic

Likes average to moist soil