Japanese painted ferns play an important and significant role in our shaded and partly-shaded gardens. By offering the combination of substantial texture along with the eye-catching and variable colors of silver and burgundy, these ferns should be on the radar for any gardener that can grow them successfully. The popularity of these painted ferns has helped mobilize not only more gardeners seeking them out at local nurseries and garden centers but breeding and selection work, which continues in earnest to develop and offer selections with differences both subtle and more pronounced. The intent of this article is to not only extol the merits of these ferns but to examine some of the best selections on the market today based on personal experience, both formal and informal trialing and observations over many years.

Working as the director of horticulture for 21 years at Rotary Botanical Gardens (Janesville, Wisconsin), I was directly involved in the design and construction of a fern and moss garden in 2005 that was intended to grow and display as many ferns as we could possibly accumulate in this Midwest climate. At its peak, this garden (affiliate garden for the Hardy Fern Foundation) contained over 250 different types of ferns that were being trialed for hardiness and adaptability in our climate.

One of our focus collections were Japanese painted ferns. We started with the popular Athyrium niponicum var. pictum (USDA Hardiness Zone 4-8) which wasn’t new for us and already had some notoriety, particularly after receiving the Perennial Plant of the Year award in 2004 from the Perennial Plant Association. At the time, there were a couple of other varieties and we were seeing some of the earliest of the painted fern crosses with lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina). These hybrids tended to combine the best traits of both parents and new hybrid selections continue to appear. At one point, we amassed over 30 varieties of Japanese painted ferns and hybrids for side-by-side comparisons in a partly-shaded garden with good soils, excellent drainage and a supplemental irrigation system (when needed). Having multiple specimens of all of these painted fern selections, we were able to do our own, “side-by-side” observations for the past 15 years. New selections on the market were aggressively sourced and became part of these ongoing trials as well.

It is important to mention that Richard Hawke, plant evaluation manager and associate scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden (Glencoe, Illinois), did a trial of painted ferns and lady ferns from 2002-2014. This study included the evaluation of 11 selections of painted fern (Athyrium niponicum) as well as four of the painted fern hybrids. This study is certainly worthy of review at chicago botanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no39_ferns.pdf. Hawke’s observations are fairly consistent with ours although our trial did go on to broaden the scope of the collection to absorb new acquisitions. Our pH was a neutral 7.0 as compared to the higher pH of 7.5 in the Chicago Botanic Garden trial and it’s likely we applied more irrigation on a regular basis.

Painted fern coloration

The foliar merits of these ferns are quite apparent and amazing in the garden. The frosty white to “steely-grey” fronds may have hints of maroon depending on the season and the variety. The coloration on painted ferns has not only variability between selections (very subtle at times) but there is transition of the coloring depending on the season. Japanese painted ferns upon emergence tend to have more burgundy and muted tones of silver and depending on the variety, certain colors become more prevalent as spring progresses in to summer. In our trials, we even noted that the best foliage coloration for most varieties typically became more pronounced and established after multiple years in the garden. The burgundy tinting can be quite variable but is more intense for certain varieties like ‘Burgundy Lace’, ‘Pewter Lace’ and ‘Regal Red’. Additionally, the degree of “silvering” is also variable with some varieties like ‘Silver Falls’ being promoted specifically for a more intense silver. The feature of “cresting”, meaning fanned ends to the fern foliage (pinna), has appeared in at least three selections to date and while not unusual in some other species, does add an extra dimension of interest. ‘Applecourt’ was the first Athyrium niponicum to offer this feature and continues to be popular. ‘Crested Surf’ is an exciting new, crested selection and the hybrid painted fern, ‘Ocean’s Fury’ (hybrid) offers a taller form with plenty of cresting and a moderate amount of “silvering” on the foliage. An interesting novelty, the variegated selection, ‘Lemon Cream’ features creamy yellow variegation but very little observable silver or burgundy.

Fern breeding

I’m quite excited about the future of the hybrid painted ferns with both lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) and Japanese painted fern bloodlines. These crosses have resulted in taller ferns that offer their colorful contributions at the 24- to 36-inch range whereas the majority of Athyrium niponicum selections hover at the 15- to 18-inch height. Both ‘Branford Beauty’ and ‘Branford Rambler’ are early results of these crosses and are still sought out for their vigor and proven performance. The ‘Ghost’ fern, in my opinion, set the standard for the hybrids by offering a very silver fern that could reach 30 inches in height. The foliage upon emergence is a silvery green but with enough sunlight, a true silver materializes in summer. The crested form ‘Ocean’s Fury’ is a nice selection (mentioned above) but I’m very excited about the relatively new ‘Godzilla’ hybrid which truly looks like a Japanese painted fern but twice the size. There is a lot more burgundy in ‘Godzilla’ than ‘Ghost’, but both have limitless applications out in the partly shaded garden.

Attributes

Painted ferns and their hybrids tend to have an arching habit, and all exhibit some degree of the silvering mentioned previously. Colors may be more muted in deeper shade, so some degree of sunlight helps with more intense coloration. Morning sun or dappled afternoon light seems to be sufficient for maximizing painted fern coloration. While I’ve seen painted ferns alive in the deepest of shade, they were not robust specimens and didn’t exhibit significant coloration. Keep in mind that these plants prefer consistent moisture and do prefer soils rich in organic matter. I don’t view these as drought tolerant ferns for any great length of time during the heat of summer. While durable once established, drought conditions will adversely affect these painted ferns in a dramatic and quick fashion. Further south in their growing range, they should be provided more shading to maintain the integrity of the foliage and help conserve surrounding moisture and plant health. Providing supplemental moisture as needed is ideal as is having decent soils at the time of installation. As mentioned, soils rich in organic matter that are consistently moist but well-drained seem ideal for these selections.

The growth rate of painted ferns is fairly moderate by roots as they will slowly colonize an area. ‘Branford Rambler’ seems to spread quicker than others which is a feature that is touted. They are easy to divide and move as you like although this process is ideal at the beginning or end of the growing season. With very few insect or disease issues, the ferns should look great throughout the season if given ample moisture. While deer resistant, rabbits have been known to take a nibble, particularly on the tender new growth in spring. Any fronds that turn brown during the season can simply be cut out.

Used as specimens, Japanese painted ferns offer that pop of foliage color with silver highlights not only offering “brightness” in our shadier gardens but at dusk, that coloration really shines. I’ve seen masses of painted ferns used along streams and ponds that really offer wonderful interest. Hawke describes painted ferns as both elegant and utilitarian and further describes their value as accents or in massed plantings. Using many specimens together creates a “collective groundcover” that is clearly defined and can be under-planted with the earliest of spring blooming bulbs or other companion plants. Sloped areas in shade can utilize masses of painted ferns to help serve as erosion control.

Neighbors for your painted ferns will be dictated by the conditions but if you have good soil and adequate moisture, consider companion plants such as false forget-me-nots (Brunnera), Ligularia, Hosta (particularly blue), Helleborus, toadlilies (Tricyrtis), and coral bells (Heuchera) with maroon foliage. Painted ferns also look great combined with bleeding hearts like ‘Gold Heart’ (Lamprocapnos spectabilis), lungworts (Pulmonaria) and variegated Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans ‘Stairway to Heaven’). Take advantage of the silver and burgundy highlights of the ferns and combine accordingly making sure all participants are happy in their combined setting. I’ve seen painted ferns and their hybrids also used successfully in containers for the season then planted out to permanent spots in fall. The silver fronds also have value in fresh flower arrangements.

Those that garden in any degree of shade do quickly appreciate the value of continued and substantial foliage interest from their plantings. While flowers are still part of the equation for many perennials in shade, the tapestry and combination of textural and colorful foliage is what truly completes the scene. The contribution of immediate fine texture and hints of silver and burgundy from the gamut of painted fern selections offers extended illumination in our shadier respites. These plants will continue to be in high demand and new selections and hybrids will undoubtedly make future appearances.

I just read an article by Alan Armitage where he states that America has been “Hydrangized.” As usual, Alan is spot on. Hydrangea sales continue to grow, year after year. As a category, it is the top-selling genus for Spring Meadow, and as a liner grower, we are in a position to see and evaluate trends. Not that this is a new trend: it dates back to the zenith of Martha Stewart and her beautiful multi-page spreads featuring blue and pink blooms, obviously photographed in hydrangea-friendly, maritime climates such as Vancouver or Cape Cod. At the same time, Gen-Xers (and more recently, millennials) began buying starter homes and pulling out the old junipers and yews once favored by their elders. These new generations were looking to add more color to their yards, and few shrubs offer up as much color as a hydrangea. At that time, our nursery offered 53 varieties of hydrangea, 30 of which were Hydrangea macrophylla. Today, we offer roughly that same number of varieties, but only 14 are macs. This is telling, and we will speak more about this market shift later in the article.

Since Y2K, hydrangea sales numbers have grown exponentially. And to give you an idea how the market has changed, we currently offer only four of the same hydrangea cultivars listed in our 1999-2000 catalog. The species have changed, the cultivars have changed, but hydrangeas are more popular than ever. Clearly, the steady stream of new varieties has grown and sustained the hydrangea market.

Mike Dirr and Bailey Nursery’s introduction of Endless Summer Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’ pp#15,298 in 2001, with its blue pot and massive marketing campaign, played a huge role in the shift. With the added benefit of remontancy (blooming on new wood without vernalization), who in their right mind, living in Middle America, would want to buy ‘Glowing Embers’, ‘Merritt Supreme’, ‘Nikko Blue’ or another old-fashioned cultivar that might not bloom? The hope and dream of every gardener in Middle America has been to have a hydrangea with big blue flowers, from June until October, regardless of cold winter or spring frost. Everyone was elated with the development, until they found out the dream was, in fact, just a dream. It turned out that remontant hydrangeas did best in milder climates where the older varieties already did well: without a killing frost, you got the spring and summer blooms, as well as the autumn blooms. The problem, particularly with some of the earlier introductions, is that if the plant dies back from winter damage or is cut back in fall or spring, it takes time to grow new stems and flower buds, leaving cold-climate gardeners disappointed, if not downright pissed off. The dream was too good to be true.

The good news is that plant breeders, including Bailey, Spring Meadow, and others kept at it, crossing remontant hydrangeas with hardier species such as Hydrangea serrata, the mountain hydrangea native to colder continental regions of South Korea, China and Japan. This next generation of hydrangeas had better stem and bud hardiness, which resulted in more reliable plants. Endless Summer Bloomstruck (‘PIIHM-II’) and Tuff Stuff Ah-Ha (‘SMNHSDD’) have proven to be reliable bloomers in our trials here in Michigan. However, the more I looked at, trialed, and examined Hydrangea macrophylla, how it grows, and how, when, and where the flowers emerge, the more questions I had about creating a better hydrangea.

While remontancy is a nice benefit, it provides mostly late-season blooms. Improvements in stem and bud hardiness have helped give us more early-season blooms, but the species has its limits. So what else could be done to improve it? I finally found my answer in a research paper by Dr. Timothy Rinehart, a USDA scientist, who noted that a number of hydrangeas on the market appeared to rebloom but were not actually remontant. He speculated these plants were capable of producing vernalized buds at nodes well-below the normal blooming terminal flower bud, which reduced the chance of winter kill, frost damage and even well-intentioned pruning. I began examining the plants in our breeding program for this ability to make vernalized flower buds on the stem within inches of — and even below — the soil line. Combining this trait with remontancy and improved bud hardiness results in a much more reliable hydrangea that can bloom in the spring, summer, and fall, as exemplified in the Let’s Dance series, particularly Let’s Dance Cancan (‘SMNHSI’). With every passing year, Hydrangea macrophylla is getting better. The truth is, however, we are still a long way off from one with the reliability and flower power of Hydrangea paniculata, or our well-adapted, native Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea quercifolia. With more breeding and a bit of luck, our dreams may yet come true. Until then, other Hydrangea species will lead the way.

The average homeowner or landscaper wants real-world performance and reliability, both of which Hydrangea paniculata and Hydrangea arborescens deliver in spades. These species flower on new wood, and are much better able to cope with spring temperature swings. Both species are hardy, heat tolerant, adaptable to a range of soils and grow in sun or modest shade. Here, too, breeders have made incredible advances, which you can read about in my May 2019 column on Hydrangea paniculata breeding, “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (bit.ly/tim-wood-giants). With regards to Hydrangea arborescens, the game-changer came in 2009 when Dr. Tom Ranney and his team at North Carolina State University released Invincibelle Spirit H. a. ‘NCHA1’, the first pink flowered Annabelle-type hydrangea. While not a perfect plant (it has since been replaced with Invincibelle Spirit II H. a. ‘NCHA2’), it opened the door to the creation of a series of seven new, sterile, reblooming cultivars offering pink, red, mauve, white and green flowered forms, many of which are dwarf or compact and all with sturdier stems than ‘Annabelle’ and the original Invincibelle. It is garden performance and flowering reliability combined with these breeding advances that have grown the hydrangea market to record levels and shifted our product mix in favor of H. paniculata and H. arborescens. Add all of that to a new generation of homeowners that wanted to come home to a more colorful, low-maintenance yard and you get a rapidly growing hydrangea market that appears to have no end.

Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of GIE Media, Inc.

Accidents and disasters, either man-made or natural, can strike anytime. No business is immune. The development and execution of an emergency response plan makes sure your employees are prepared to handle a situation.

Every organization, no matter the size, needs an emergency response plan in place, says Zachery Bruce, safety services manager at Hortica.

“An emergency response plan is important because it allows an organization to identify potential emergencies and be prepared for them. You can’t be prepared if you don’t plan,” he says. “A plan should train staff to respond appropriately to emergencies and it provides documentation for every employee. And leadership must know how to execute the plan.”

When it comes to emergencies, weather is typically the first thing people think about. But there are other perils facing businesses such as pandemics, cyber attacks (see page 8 for the story on cybersecurity), accidents and burglaries.

How to begin

The first step when creating a plan is to identify an emergency response team.

“Make sure you have key employees on your team who have a good understanding of the organization and the facilities,” Bruce says. “Maintenance staff should be included because they know where the find the shutoff valves for power, gas and water, for example. The team shouldn’t be so big that it becomes unmanageable, but you need a good representation of people from HR, maintenance and production.”

Once you have your team in place, it’s time to perform a risk assessment. The team is charged with identifying what potential emergencies could your facility face.

If you need help identifying a comprehensive list of emergencies or developing the plan, there are agencies and companies that can help. An interagency site, www.ready.gov, provides a comprehensive list of resources for emergency response plans. OSHA provides e-tools to help businesses create plans. It’s available at www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/evacuation/eap.html.

Your own insurance carrier can assist with training materials or templates, and it’s always a good idea to contact your local emergency response authorities such as fire departments and EMS for guidance, Bruce says.

Once your plan is finalized, choose someone on the response team who will initiate and act on the plan when an emergency arises.

“There needs to be someone who leads the response,” Bruce advises. Name a backup in case that person is not at work when the emergency occurs.

Next steps

It’s critical to perform drills, which often doesn’t happen in many businesses, Bruce says.

“If you don’t practice it, you won’t likely do well in your response,” he adds.

During a drill, take notes to determine which areas need work or where more training is needed. Did everyone get out in a timely manner? Was the plan clear?

“It’s a good learning experience, and it will demonstrate where your shortcomings may be,” he says. “You should also consider having a drill during the peak season when the majority of your employees are there.”

Emergency response plans should be reviewed annually at the very least, and certainly after you’ve completed a drill, he says. Review it and make necessary changes if you perform any major facility changes, such as new buildings and new equipment, which could create new potential exposures, he says.

Your plan and list of procedures must be accessible to all employees. Consider housing it on a company intranet, or putting a copy in breakroom or in another common area. Also consider your non-English speaking employees and make sure your plan is properly translated.

Another consideration when it comes to emergencies is to store copies of important documents offsite, to house data backups offsite and make sure you test that backup system, he adds.

If you are not educating your employees on cybersecurity best practices, you are missing the biggest opportunity for improvement in your entire cybersecurity profile. Your employees have business-need access to a lot of important data, and their ability to protect that data — or to inadvertently let it walk out the door of your organization — is strong.

Lack of education has been at the heart of several incidents of a major security breach. Consider the scenario about the new HR employee who got an email from the president of the organization asking for all the W2 information on every employee, so that person sent them exactly as instructed. The employee did not recognize the fact that the email came from a hacker impersonating the CEO, and a major security breach took place.

Entire business models are based on this kind of fraud. Let’s pretend that I am going to build a site with the world’s best collection of cute pet pictures. I’ll give you the first 10 for free (and those 10 are the most adorable pictures you have ever seen), but to see more, you need to set up a username and password. The access is still free, though.

No big deal, right? Wrong. In this scenario, I own this website, I am a criminal, and my business model is to try to use the username and password you just entered at every major banking website, on all major email providers, on your company’s VPN portal, and anywhere else that I think you might have used the same username and password. I will then extract any valuable information I can from those sites, sell the information for a profit, possibly ransom your own data from you to make even more money, and then move on to the next victim.

Need some numbers to illustrate why educating your employees about cybersecurity practices is important?

• The IDG 2018 Global State of Information Security Survey reported that during the past year, the top sources of security incidents were current employees (30%), former employees (27%), and unknown hackers (23%). The main impacts include customer and employee records being compromised, and the loss or damage of internal records.
• According to the Ponemon Institute, 60% of employees use the exact same password for everything they access. Meanwhile, 63% of confirmed data breaches leverage a weak, default or stolen password.

Cybersecurity training

So where can your company start? Start with a training program. Your employees need to be educated on cybersecurity best practices.

Any cybersecurity awareness training program should address implementing real password policies. There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it: Passwords stink. They are no fun to create, no fun to remember, and no fun to type in. But passwords are still the most common authentication method today. It is imperative to implement a password policy requiring complex passwords that can’t easily be guessed, and end-user training to go along with it. Microsoft’s Active Directory “require complex passwords” setting is a start, but end-user training is also mandatory.

Many users apply the same passwords for every online system in which a password is needed. This is a problem. If one site gets hacked, cybercriminals will try your credentials at all common websites, and possibly at your firm’s VPN. It is imperative that your cybersecurity awareness training program encourage your team members to use different passwords for different sites, and especially for any system that your company uses.

Most companies have some sort of safety guidelines that their employees must follow or be aware of and cybersecurity should be no different. There are a number of companies that specialize in this type of training and picking the right type of training is critical.

Cybercriminal profiles

Today’s cybercriminals come at your company from many angles. Their motivations are often more practical than many law-abiding citizens would expect.

Profit. They want money, and you have information they can monetize.

Influence. They can use data to manipulate business or personal situations in their favor.

Power. If your company dominates an industry or owns critical trade secrets, others wish to take that power away from you and use it for their own advantage. Cybercrime is one way to accomplish that goal.

Motives such as these change the way cybercriminals operate. They are organized. They share information among each other. They are often well-funded. And these things make them more dangerous. Some cybercriminals are also your employees. This is a difficult topic. While it’s true that internal employees are responsible for a large number of cybersecurity breaches, it’s also true that most of these are unintentional. They are a result of good people doing something they shouldn’t, either out of ignorance or because a cybercriminal tricked them into doing it (if you saw the movie “Catch Me if You Can” this is Frank Abagnale’s social-engineering behavior). Statistics on the exact percentage of “insider” cyber breaches that are deliberate vs. inadvertent vary widely, but the opinion can be held that the vast majority of insider threats are not malicious. No matter which statistic you believe, everyone agrees that many insider threats would have been prevented if the insider had understood how his or her behavior allowed a breach to occur. It’s easy to see why a good cybersecurity awareness training program is so important to the success of your company.

There is a risk of an employee with malicious intent to breach your sensitive data. Whether it be to share sensitive details to a competitor, profit from your data, or a disgruntled employee looking to carry out revenge against your company. If your company falls victim of a malicious-intentioned employee, finding out what happened is even more difficult because they often have high level system privileges that allow them to erase their tracks.

If your company is one of the unlucky ones where an insider deliberately caused a security breach, then you are automatically in the highest risk category of those susceptible to cybercrime. The keys to mitigate this risk are simple.

• Educate your employees. Establish a strong mandatory and frequent cybersecurity awareness training program for your employees that clearly lays out the policy for cybersecurity and the consequences of violating the policy. Don’t allow employees to take home devices that contain sensitive files due to the risk of the device being stolen or sensitive data being transmitted over insecure networks at their home or other locations. Instruct your employees to never share their passwords.
• Know your people. Perform background checks on your employees to assist in identifying those that may take deliberate actions that would harm your company. Know which people have access to the most sensitive data.
• Guard your most sensitive data. Limit your employees’ ability to obtain access (intentional or unintentional) to sensitive information via a least-privileged approach to your data. Identify your most sensitive and valuable data. Then assign that data the highest safeguarding and most persistent monitoring.

Remove “local administrator privileges” from your users to their company-provided laptops or desktops. A local administrator is someone who can do anything he or she chooses to with a computer, such as install programs, delete files, change sensitive security settings, and so on. Turning on “egress filtering” on your network and limiting the use of USB thumb drives will make it harder for anyone to make copies of it and move them outside of your organization.

Ensure that you have forensics available to you. Tracking down an internal cybercriminal requires logging of network activity, especially for any access to sensitive information. Any logs need to be stored in an area that is limited to the fewest number of employees as possible.

In short, your employees are your most valuable asset, but can also be your greatest liability. They need to be trained on best practices to keep your data safe, and they also need to understand that you have forensic systems in place that will likely catch them if they attempt to access data they should not. A “trust but verify” approach regarding employee access to your critical intellectual property is an important part of your company’s cybersecurity program.

Bryce Austin is the CEO of TCE Strategy, and actively advises companies across a wide variety of industries on effective methods to mitigate cyber threats.