How to Trim a Sword Fern

Garden clippers help you care for your sword fern.

With their large evergreen fronds, sword ferns make an excellent addition to your shade garden. Sword fern (Polystichum munitum) grows as a native understory plant in the western portions of North America. Although young plants do best in moist soil, once sword ferns mature, they require little water. To add to its low maintenance personality, the sword fern does well in most any soil that contains organic matter in the form of leaf litter or compost. About the only care your sword fern will need is an occasional trim to keep it tidy.

Things You'll Need

• Bypass clippers or garden scissors

Instructions

1. Wait to trim until new growth starts to appear on your sword fern in late winter or early spring. The new growth appears as bright green coils that slowly unfurl and open into new fronds.

2. Lift the fern's older fronds and look for brown fronds or fronds that are starting to turn brown. Use the clippers or scissors to cut away these dead or dying fronds. Trim as close to the base of the fern as possible.

3. Look closely at the fern for any fronds that are bent or broken along the stem. Because sword ferns grow under trees, broken branches from upper story trees often fall on the ferns and break the fronds. Trim away these fronds as close to the base of the fern as possible.

4. Step back and look at the overall shape of your fern. If your trimming has left it uneven, trim away additional fronds to make the fern more symmetrical. Trim away only a couple fronds at a time, and then step back to see if more trimming needs to be done.

5. Walk past your sword fern if it is along a pathway. If there are a few fronds that get in the way of your path, trim back these fronds. Trim either at the base of the fern or trim away just enough of the frond to keep it out of your way. If the fern is large and more than half of it is blocking the path, consider moving the fern to a better location rather than cutting it back too heavily.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid cutting back all the old fronds unless your fern has heavy damage. Leaving healthy older fronds gives the fern a nice shape and improves its overall appearance.

• Watch your fingers if using new or newly sharpened cutters.

References

• Sunset Western Garden Book; Sunset Publishing
• Oregon State University Extension: Sword fern is all-around favorite
• Rainyside Gardeners: Polystichum munitum