About thirty years ago, I worked for a brief time at a wholesale greenhouse. It was a great job, the other employees were very nice; I got to work in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of growing plants; I got great physical exercise, and I learned a lot about plants. There were plants that I had never grown myself and even plants I’d never seen before – like the Rabbit’s Foot fern.

Rabbit’s Foot fern (Davallia fejeensis) is a lovely fern with bright green, delicate fronds. But the characteristic that gave it its common name was also the part that absolutely fascinated me: it has furry rhizomes – soft, light brown, fuzzy rhizomes. I found myself petting the fern whenever I was around it.

Mother’s Love

It was getting towards Mother’s Day, so I bought a Rabbit’s Foot fern for my Mammaw. She had never seen anything like it either, but she had a green thumb like I dream about. That fall, I was visiting her and she gave me a start of the Rabbit’s Foot fern, a nice, healthy, good sized start. I was more than pleased!

Fast forward thirty years – I still have that fern. It has moved with me seven or eight times. It’s seen two marriages, two children born, and numerous pets come and go. One time, my pet cat decided the fern made an ideal place on which to sit and look out the window; I stopped that by sticking chopsticks into the soil with about two inches sticking up. The cat decided it was no longer a comfortable place to sit and the fern survived the abuse.

When I water it, I smile and murmur softly to the fern and to Mammaw – if there is an afterlife, I know she hears me. Mammaw passed away in 2004 and it is the only living thing of hers that I have left. I know it will absolutely break my heart if it dies.

Strangely, as I was researching for this article (you don’t think I really knew the scientific name for it, did you?) I realized that I’d been growing it all wrong for the last thirty years!

Correct Care

Granted, I did keep it well watered and in indirect, bright light, providing a light fertilizer. But, I did NOT know that those cute, little fuzzy rhizomes actually draw in moisture from the atmosphere – Rabbit’s Foot ferns are epiphytes, like some orchids!

I had planted my fern in regular potting soil and then repotted it once a long time ago. According to the internet, you should grow the fern in well-drained soil – one site suggested using orchid growing medium; another suggested lava rocks; yet another suggested a mix of peat moss, sand and potting soil. Gee, who would have guessed?

I did know that consistent, high humidity is important: place the pot in a pebble-covered tray and keep water in the tray. Misting is nice, but not enough. I think I’m going to take mine outside this summer…goodness knows, our Southern Indiana summers are nearly as humid as the tropics. I’ll bring it inside come fall, of course, because this fern is not hardy in Zone 6b – it’s at home in Zones 10 – 12.

I may try to actually get some of the rhizomes to take root – an easy way to propagate it. This fern can be divided – take it out of the pot and gently pull to untangle the rhizomes; you can use a sharp knife if needed; then divide and pot up the divisions. I’m not sure that I want to divide it – I’m scared I’ll lose it – on the other hand, if I were successful, I’d have four Mammaw ferns!