Fern Festival & Sale
Saturday May 18, 2013:
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Fern Glade
Presented by the Huntsville Fern Society, the twentieth annual Fern Festival includes music, mini-seminars on ferns, and sale of many types of garden ferns. Beautiful and shade-loving perennials, ferns can give a lush, soft accent to woodland gardens. Best of all, ferns are highly deer-resistant and many are easy to grow here in North Alabama.
The Fern Festival features over 40 different varieties of garden ferns for sale, with Fern Society members on hand to offer advice on growing and selecting ferns. All the ferns, and even a few similar plants called fern allies, will be displayed alongside mature examples of their kind so visitors can see what to expect from each plant in the years to come. Common and much-loved ferns like Autumn Brilliance, Dixie Wood, Japanese Holly and Maidenhairs will be available, as well as hard-to-find ferns, including such tongue-twisters as Shaggy Shield/Dryopteris cycadina and a new and very colorful Ruby Red Spikemoss/Selaginella erythropus sanguinea. All are considered hardy ferns which means they are suitable to North Alabama's Zone 7 climate. All sell for just $7 each, cash or check only.
In addition to ferns for sale, the Fern Festival also includes music and mini-seminars presented by members of the Fern Society. These free mini-seminars begin at 10 a.m. with Getting Started with Easy Ferns. The 10:30 a.m. topic is Ferns for Patio Containers and at 11 a.m. a tour of the Fern Glade Highlights is offered. The mini-seminars repeat in order at 11:30, noon and 12:30.
All proceeds from the sale support the enhancement of the Garden's Fern Glade – the coolest, shadiest green space in all of Huntsville!
For more information, contact Fern Society president Veali Holtcamp at 256-828-0555 or v.holtcamp@mchsi.com.
Membership/Garden admission required.
