Beginner’s Guide to Fern Ecology and Propagation

This practical and theoretical workshop is an opportunity to learn more about fern ecology, how they reproduce, and how you can grow your own from spore to adult and back again.

We’ll explore:

• Fern life cycle and ecology
• What a fern spore is and where to find them
• How to collect and store spores for sowing
• How to sow spores and grow them on

This session is ideal for anyone who has ever been entranced by the subtle beauty of a fern frond but is mystified at the prospect of growing them. This session will prove it’s easier than you think; often all you need is patience.

You will leave with an understanding of where ferns grow and why, the skills to start propagating the ferns you find in your world, as well as your own sown pot of spores to take with you to watch them green up and grow.

This event is subsidised thanks to a grant from the John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust.

Tutor bio:

Richard Choksey

Richard Choksey is an active member of London’s community gardening movement, facilitating networking and peer-to-peer training with Social Farms & Gardens, and delivering nature engagement and community food growing activities across the city. Previously, he trained as a horticulturist with the RHS, Cambridge Botanic Garden and Kew Gardens. He has been growing ferns for 5 years now, and can often be found anxiously peering and poking into pots of spores, willing the unfolding of ferny magic to go faster.