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, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 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.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.