Fern offspring

I already posted this on Places of the Spirit.  Surely it really belongs in Natural Gardening, but the margins between the two blur.

Young ferns appeared at the base of the sedum bed this spring, a charming and welcome addition to the shadiest part of the bed.  They're now a lot bigger!

I'd initially thought that the spores had floated in from our neighbor's garden, but now -- well, it's clear the source is the robust wood fern at the corner of the house.

  

Dryopteris intermedia (intermediate wood fern) does well here in the North Carolina mountains.  And in this year of plenty of rain (and afternoon thunderstorms), well, it's flourishing.