GARDENING APRIL.qxp_Layout 1 24/03/2025 16:02 Page 1
GARDENING
Ancient survivors
It’s strange to think we probably owe our existence to ferns, writes Elly West, who ponders on the prehistoric plants we can include in our gardens to connect with our planet’s history
I
have one border in my garden where the dreaded weed known as ‘horsetail’ is an issue. This border is supposed to be a cottage-style combination of lavender and Mexican daisies (Erigeron), both of which I love, but I also have a constant battle pulling out the roguish stems of this unwelcome weed, popping up between the other plants. When I see its weird, jointed stems and feathery leaves, I get my pointy trowel and try to get them out along with at least some of the root, although rumour has it these can run up to two metres deep, but they usually snap off and continue to pop up as soon as my back is turned all through the summer. It’s got a strange, prehistoric look about it, slightly alien, and certainly doesn’t fit with the floral, pastel look I’m trying to achieve. This is a tough plant with extreme survival skills, so perhaps it’s not a huge surprise (although still fairly mind-blowing) that it’s been roaming the planet for over 100 million years, perhaps once providing a tasty snack for triceratops and other dinosaurs. This gets me thinking about other prehistoric plants and their place in our modern gardens. On the other side of my garden in the shade is a beautiful tree fern and some other smaller ferns, which I’m perfectly happy with, and I’ve recently been asked to design a few gardens with ‘architectural’ planting, rather than frothy flowers, many of which have that jungly, tropical, prehistoric feel. Cycads, ferns, gunnera, tree ferns, monkey puzzle trees, conifers and Gingko biloba can all be found in gardens today, and are examples of ‘living fossils’ that have been around for millenia. Ferns are some of the earliest plants we know of, going back 350 million years or more and pre-dating dinosaurs by around 100 million 88 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE | APRIL 2025 | No 245
years, helping to make the oxygen that other creatures needed for survival and evolution. Strange to think we probably owe our existence to ferns. There are an estimated 15,000 species, and new ones are still being found in unexplored tropical areas. They are unique in that they do not produce flowers and seeds to propagate, but instead have spores on the undersides of their leaves. In the garden, ferns are useful for providing textural ground cover in shady areas. Varieties such as shield ferns (Polystichum) and Dryopteris will cope well with both shade and dry soil, so are great for tricky spots under evergreen and deciduous trees. Others such as hart’s tongue ferns and Athyriums prefer damper conditions. Ferns are especially beautiful in spring, in my opinion, when they start to unfurl and spread out their leaves from tightly curled whorls.
Triassic trees Conifers are found in many gardens and are among the oldest living tree species, flourishing in the Triassic period over 200 million years ago, long before many other plants evolved. These also have an interesting way of reproducing, with most having cones rather than flowers. Conifers are an example of extreme adaption for survival, enabling them to grow at high altitudes and extreme low temperatures. Thick bark protects them from the cold, waxy needles help to prevent water loss and the tough pine cones protect the seeds in harsh winters. Conifers vary in size from less than a metre tall, to the giant redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, of which the world’s tallest known tree in California was last measured in 2019 at nearly 120 metres in height. Another fascinating ancient tree is the aforementioned Gingko biloba. I first came across this special tree at Kew Gardens when I lived in west