Staghorn Fern
I got a new staghorn fern! Yesterday we went out on a mission to get some peonies. I rarely purchase cut flowers for all sorts of reasons (i.e. cut flowers are often sprayed, they're expensive, etc), however when the peonies come out I must have them. We popped into a different floral shop 'just to check' and I was surprised to see they had a large staghorn fern in a hanging basket. I assumed it would be at least twenty bucks but was stunned when the woman at the counter announced the price was $5.99! Beate bought me a staghorn fern a few years ago (R.I.P. fern and that's all I'm going to say). It was a fairly small plant and I remember her saying it cost somewhere around $7.00 (Canadian currency). Well this plant is HUGE! A lot larger than the former staghorn fern.
At such a deal I immediately purchased it in addition to every peony stem they had! The stems were 50 cents a piece whereas at the other store they were $5.99 for three! I scored major deals twice in one day.
So now I have another beautiful but stress-inducing plant under my care. I really hope I can keep this staghorn fern alive. I know HOW to do it, I just can't seem to put the knowledge to work for ME. The last plant bit the bucket despite my near-best attempt. The plan was to keep it in the dappled sunlight at the far wall underneath the gazebo. Already that plan has been thwarted over the span of one lousy day by the weather which has gone from a blazing 30-something degrees to cold and grey. I had to bring the Vanda orchid and the staghorn back inside this afternoon after I realised that there was no hope in hell of it warming up out there. This weather is messed.
UPDATE: Guess why this plant was so cheap? It has a lovely brown scale infestation that's why! At first I thought it was spores because brown scale is very flat and closely resembles fern spores. But after some research I discovered that staghorn fern spores are more like patches of brown rather than individual chunks. So I cut off one whole frond that was heavily infested and have been checking the others daily. The odd thing is that when I bought the plant it showed no signs of sickness (but the scale was there I just didn't bother to check for it). But now nearly a week later, some of the fronds are yellowing. sigh
posted at 05:33 PM
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