Sweet Fern
Comptonia peregrina
Fern-like leaves release a spicy-sweet scent when brushed. Fixes nitrogen and spreads into a tough, weed-smothering cover for dry, sandy soil.
Typically 1 quart–3 gal · $17–$85 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Sep 248 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Sep 258 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Sep 268 AM – 2 PM
That unmistakable spicy-sweet fragrance when you brush the leaves makes sweet fern one of the most sensory plants in the entire native palette.
Sweet fern isn't a fern at all: it's a low woody shrub with fern-like deeply lobed leaves that release a rich, spicy-sweet fragrance when you brush against them. It's the smell of a sunny hillside in the mid-Atlantic, the kind of scent that's impossible to describe without saying 'crush a leaf and smell it.' Keep a pot near the entry and every visitor will stop and ask what it is. It's native to dry, sandy, acidic soils: roadsides, rocky slopes, and disturbed areas, which means it fixes nitrogen and builds soil where almost nothing else establishes. It spreads steadily by rhizomes to form a dense, weed-suppressing groundcover that rarely needs attention once established.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown sweet fern propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Mature size
- 2–4 ft · 36–60 in wide
- Bloom time
- Early spring
- USDA zones
- 2–6
- Family
- Myricaceae
- Native range
- Eastern North America (acidic sandy soils)
Care notes for sweet fern.
Full sun in dry, sandy, acidic soil. Will not tolerate clay or poor drainage. Does not transplant well once established. plant in its permanent location. Fixes nitrogen and improves poor soils over time. No fertilizer needed. Spreads by rhizomes; contains naturally once it finds its preferred conditions.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside sweet fern.
Or skip the guesswork.
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