Best Outdoor Fern Plants of 2026
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Outdoor fern plants are a beautiful and versatile addition to any garden or outdoor space. These plants are known for their lush green foliage and delicate fronds, which add texture and interest to any landscape. Ferns are also low maintenance and easy to care for, making them a popular choice for gardeners of all skill levels. Whether you're looking to create a lush, tropical oasis or simply add a touch of green to your outdoor space, outdoor fern plants are an excellent choice.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks
Top 6 Outdoor Fern Plants
GardenersDream 5 Mixed Outdoor Fern Plants
The GardenersDream Fern Plants offer a delightful collection of five mixed fern varieties, perfect for adding diverse textures and shades of green to your garden. With lush foliage throughout the year, these plants ensure your garden remains vibrant and interesting regardless of the season. Being nursery grown, they are well-spread and ready for immediate planting, giving you the convenience of mature plants without the wait. This easy-to-care-for option is ideal for shaded areas, allowing you to transform less sunny spots into beautiful green spaces.
4 x Ready to Plant Outdoor Fern Plants
The Carbeth Plants Fern Mix is an excellent choice for adding greenery to shady areas of your garden. With a variety of ferns that change throughout the year, you can enjoy the best-looking plants available at the time of purchase. These ferns thrive in shaded spots, making them ideal for planting under trees. Moreover, they require minimal maintenance; simply give them a drink during dry spells, allowing you to enjoy a beautiful garden without the hassle of constant care.
Asplenium Scolopendrium Hart's Tongue Fern Plant
The Carbeth Outdoor Fern Plant is an ideal choice for shaded areas in your garden. This evergreen hart's tongue fern thrives in low-light conditions, making it perfect for planting beneath trees or near rocks. Once established, it requires minimal care, needing only annual mulching and a bit of tidying in spring. With a maximum height and spread of 60cm, it adds a beautiful touch to patio pots and garden borders without overwhelming your space.
Asparagus Meyers Foxtail Fern Easy Care Evergreen Plant
The Asparagus Meyers Foxtail Fern is an evergreen plant that keeps your garden looking fresh all year round. It is easy to care for, so you won’t need to spend much time maintaining it, making it ideal for busy gardeners. This plant is drought resistant, which means it can thrive even if you forget to water it regularly, saving you effort and worry. Additionally, it grows well in planters and hanging baskets, giving you flexibility to decorate your outdoor spaces as you like.
Thompson & Morgan Lady in Red Hardy Garden Fern
The Lady in Red Fern by Thompson & Morgan is a striking architectural plant ideal for shady garden spots. Its bright red stems and green fronds add a unique splash of colour, giving your garden a fresh twist on the classic Japanese Painted Fern. This hardy fern is low maintenance, making it perfect if you want a beautiful plant without much effort. Each spring, it produces fresh new fronds, adding shape and contrast to your borders or containers. You can also mix it with other plants to create lovely floral displays or build a diverse fern collection.
GardenersDream Mixed Outdoor Fern Collection
The GardenersDream Fern Plants collection features three distinct fern varieties that thrive all year round, adding vibrant shades of green to your garden. Each plant is carefully grown to ensure optimal health, allowing you to enjoy their lush foliage immediately. With a height of 20–30 cm, these hardy perennials are perfect for easy planting. They provide consistent beauty throughout the seasons, ensuring your outdoor space remains inviting and colourful, regardless of the time of year.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What ferns are good for outside?
Types of wood ferns ideal for outdoor growing include the autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), crested buckler-fern (Dryopteris cristata), leatherleaf fern (Rumohra adiantiformis), and marginal wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis).
2. Can ferns live outside all year?
Ferns are tropical plants and will not tolerate cold outdoor temperatures. To maintain your fern's evergreen color, you can try to overwinter your fern by cutting it back in the fall and placing it in a light-filled area indoors. Location, humidity, and water are essential for an attempt at overwintering.
3. What is the easiest fern to grow outdoors?
Today, Boston fern is still a top pick for indoor and outdoor settings. But, because Boston fern can grow 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide, it are often a better choice for outdoor situations.
4. Do ferns make good outdoor plants?
Ferns make an excellent addition to any shady garden. Use them as specimen plants or for background plantings, or interplant them with other shade loving plants such as hostas, astilbes, dicentras and caladiums. If your yard is shady, it can be challenging to maintain a good-looking lawn.
During our outdoor fern plant research, we found 47 outdoor fern plant products and shortlisted 6 quality products. We collected and analyzed 8,570 customer reviews through our big data system to write the outdoor fern plants list. We found that most customers choose outdoor fern plants with an average price of £19.31.
The outdoor fern plants are available for purchase. We have researched hundreds of brands and picked the top brands of outdoor fern plants, including GardenersDream, Carbeth Plants, C.B. Plants, Thompson & Morgan.
Toby Butcher is a Horticulturist, and he earned his title as a Master Gardener in 2016. Toby has acquired a 25-year experience as a home gardener planting, designing, grooming vegetables and flowers. He is the leader of a plant group in Durham. Toby owns a blog where he publishes articles on growing and growing your flowers at home, in a vase, or in a garden.