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Giant Sword Fern in the GardenTags plant encyclopedia

Nephrolepis biserrata

 

Giant Sword Fern

A popular long-lived plant with lots of flowing fronds, perfect for all kinds of containers. It thrives in damp, but not soggy soil that is rich in nutrients. It is tolerant to drought. When grown as a house-plant, be sure to mist the plant when relative humidity falls below around 80%. Outdoors this plant prefers partial shade or full shade.

 
plant Features
  • Giant Sword Fern likes partial shade to deep shade

    Partial shade to deep shade

  • Giant Sword Fern likes frequent watering

    Frequent watering

  • Giant Sword Fern is not frost hardy

    Not Frost hardy

  • Giant Sword Fern likes moist and fertile

    Moist and fertile

 
plant information

Common name

Giant Sword Fern

Latin name

Nephrolepis biserrata

type

Fern

family

Nephrolepidaceae

ph

6.5 - 7.5 Acid - Neutral

  • Light

    Giant Sword Fern likes partial shade to deep shade

    Partial shade to deep shade

  • Frost

    Giant Sword Fern is not frost hardy

    Not Frost hardy

  • Soil

    Giant Sword Fern likes moist and fertile

    Moist and fertile

  • Water

    Giant Sword Fern likes frequent watering

    Frequent watering

Plant & bloom calendar

  •  
    Best time to plant

full grown dimensions

The size of a fully grown Giant Sword Fern is 1.80meters x 0.90meters 1.80 M 0.90 M

Nephrolepis biserrata

A popular long-lived plant with lots of flowing fronds, perfect for all kinds of containers. It thrives in damp, but not soggy soil that is rich in nutrients. It is tolerant to drought. When grown as a house-plant, be sure to mist the plant when relative humidity falls below around 80%. Outdoors this plant prefers partial shade or full shade.


Planting young plants

From Early Spring TO Early Summer

When planting, it's really important not to bury the crown as this will lead to crown rot and the eventual death of your plant. If re-potting a pot grow plant, only repot if you are happy for the plant to grow bigger and even then, only when the roots have filled the existing pot. Take extra care to keep the fern at the same soil level it sat at before. As a houseplant, it needs warm to average warmth during the day with a natural decrease in temperature at night will work wonders on the foliage, 16°C - 26°C / 60°F - 80°F. In any case, no lower than 10°C / 50°F.

 

Propagation

From Early Spring TO Early Summer

It's usually most productive to divide a large plant into 2 or 3 pieces when you repot, or a more reliable approach is to look out for "baby" ferns appearing on "runners" at the edges of the pot. After they are large enough to handle they can be cut away from the "runner" and potted up in a similar compost mix.

 
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