Familys fern turns 114
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“Keeping it in the family is most important,” says Evelyn.
The emergency care worked. The fern looks healthier than ever, they say. Sitting outdoors in fall sunshine, the fern’s dark-green fronds drape over the edges of the pot, hiding all evidence that there’s even a container beneath them.
Evelyn’s fern is a division taken from the original plant her grandmother, Marietta Good, born 1870, started when she was a young woman. Family photos throughout the years show potted pieces of the fern on front porches and in front of young women in the family, including Evelyn’s mother, Ollie May Kingan, born 1895.
Amos Good, husband to Marietta, was a rural Virginia farmer and contractor who worked on White House remodeling jobs in the 1940s. As time went on, he built a family house with 13 bedrooms to house his 12 children and Evelyn when she was born in a small town called Tenth Legion in Rockingham County, Va., about 94 miles from Washington, D.C.
“The whole family loved plants and kids,” says Evelyn. “The house and yard were always filled with flowers of all kinds.”
When Marietta died, Evelyn’s mother inherited the plant, which by then had produced many offspring given to others. When Evelyn’s mother passed away in 1984, the fern ended up in Newport News, Va., with Evelyn.
Now that the plant is back in good health, Wayne and his mother give it special attention. During winter, it stays in a cool back bedroom because the plant drops leaves when it gets too warm indoors. While autumn’s days are still warm, they daily sit it outdoors on the patio and bring it indoors at night.
“We don’t let it stay outdoors if it’s going to be below 45 degrees,” says Wayne.
Daily misting and regular feedings of Miracle-Gro help maintain its good looks, they say.
But, lugging the plant inside is getting to be a back-aching job, they say. When Wayne wasn’t home one evening, Evelyn toted it inside herself, worrying it was getting too cold outdoors.
“Boy, it’s heavy,” says Evelyn.
Although potting it into a larger container worked years ago, Wayne knows it needs something more drastic next year - its root ball sliced in half or quarters and each smaller division potted on its own.
“We can’t keep potting it like it is,” he says. “It’s grown 6 or 7 inches this summer and it’s getting too big to handle.”
