GARDEN
15 Different Fern Types to Grow Indoors
Want to bring tropical beauty to the home, indoor ferns are a lush and rewarding addition to any space. With vibrant, cascading fronds that stand out among other indoor plants, they are the top options for adding plant life and texture to your living space.
Here are the 15 Different Fern Types below that you will love growing. Like other houseplants, they also adapt to indoor conditions with minimal care.
#1 Kangaroo Fern (Microsorum diversifolium)
Kangaroo Fern comes from Western Australia that features odd-shaped, long bright green fronds growing from creeping fuzzy rhizomes. To grow this fern, let’s give it moist soil and place it in a warm location.
#2 Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
Boston Fern is also called the sword or ladder fern, it has blue-green sword-shaped fronds that stay evergreen with arching gorgeous erect leaflets. This plant grows well in low light and just with minimalistic attention.
#3 Botton Candy Boston Fern (Nephrolepis ‘Cotton Candy’)
Cotton Candy Boston Fern does well both indoors and outdoors to show off fuzzy, soft, and bright green fronds. It looks great when grown in pots or hanging baskets. For its happy growth, give it in a shady location outdoors and on an Eastern direction window indoors.
#4 Bird’s Nest Fern (Asplenium nidus)
Bird’s Nest Fern is an easy-care epiphyte variety as long as it gets enough humidity. In the right condition, it will bring leathery, strap-shaped, shiny, bright apple green fronds patterned in dark brown to black midribs and wavy edges.
#5 Blue Star Fern (Phlebodium aureum)
Blue Star Fern is an epiphyte fern that adapts fast to the indoor environment. Its blue-green leaves are sometimes speckled with a silver or gray hue. To plant it indoors, give it well-draining soil, or an equal mix of perlite, pumice, or gravel.
#6 Lemon Button Fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia ‘Lemon Button’)
Lemon Button Fern showcases tiny, golden-green round button-like leaflets. When grown in hanging baskets or in terrariums, its long, arching leaves give a stunning look. For its optimum growth, give it medium to bright light and high humidity.
#7 Squirrel’s Foot Fern (Davallia bullata)
In the wild, the plant’s rhizomes of the Squirrel’s Foot Fern wrap around a tree to cling to them, hence the name. Place in indirect light and highly humid conditions, it will grow best to produce lacy and green foliage.
#8 Cretan Brake Fern (Pteris cretica)
Native to Europe, Africa, and Asia, this evergreen fern has innate, flat green fronds with attractive variegation and wavy edges. The Cretan Brake Fern favors growing in a humid environment, so you can grow it in hanging baskets and place it in bathrooms or on tabletops.
#9 Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum)
Maidenhair Fern is a popular fern that performs delicate, light, lacy, airy, bright green leaves on slender black stems, making it look great in hanging baskets. This fern variety requires slight moisture and bright indirect sunlight for its happy growth.
#10 Asparagus Fern (Asparagus aethiopicus)
Asparagus Fern is one of the best hanging ferns that you can in baskets and macrame holders to enjoy its lacy-green foliage leaves. To grow this fern, give it humid locations and mist regularly, especially in summer.
#11 Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum)
Japanese Holly Fern shows off serrated, sharp-tipped long deep green leathery fronds that look like holly branches. This fern grows well both in partial sun and shade, so it thrives well indoors with minimum maintenance.
Native to New Zealand, the Button Fern is a beautiful, easy-to-grow fern. It displays round and small leaflets or ‘buttons’ on slim stems, hence the name. This fern variety adapts well to average indoor conditions.
#12 Rabbit’s Foot Fern (Humata tyermanii)
Rabbit’s Foot Fern loves growing in bright, indirect light. It produces dark green, delicate, fine-textured fronds on fuzzy root-like stems (rhizomes).
#13 Staghorn Fern (Platycerium)
Staghorn Fern is a stunning epiphytic fern that offers exotic green fronds resembling the horns of an elk or male deer. It is easy to grow from propagating its side shoots or spores. It grows well in bright, indirect light, well-watered in a warm, and well-draining starter mix.
#14 Button Fern (Pellaea rotundifolia)
Native to New Zealand, the Button Fern is a beautiful and easy-to-grow plant. It produces round and small leaflets or ‘buttons’ on slim stems, hence the name.
#15 Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
The fern variety offers glossy and green fronds that give the best color around Christmas time, so its name comes from this. Grow it in bright and indirect light for the best color. Also, water the plant once a week and keep the soil consistently moist.