The Staghorn Ferns

I did a post about how we came to have a greenhouse at our house. In case you missed it, we built the greenhouse to be the winter home to my husband's staghorn ferns. At the time I wrote that entry,  I didn't have photos of the ferns to post but I do now.

It may have only gotten to 56 degrees today - I know crazy stuff for May in SOUTH Texas - but it was warm and humid this past weekend and I took advantage of getting some photos of these HUGE ferns my husband has meticulously taken care of for years.

He did a good job keeping the stove fired up every two hours during the cold snaps this past winter and the ferns expressed their gratitude by doubling in size since he put them in the greenhouse in November. I'm really glad Jim comes over and helps him with moving these beasts. They really are not that heavy if they haven't been watered for about a week before you move them. But to move them, it's all upper body strength because you can't put them right up close to your body for fear of hurting the leaves - and then when you go to hook them onto the chains in the oak tree, you have to pull them up or push them up. It's hard and I try to be miles from home on moving days. Anyway, there are three of them and they hang from the oak tree in the back yard.

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#1 with Sy so you can see how large this thing is. Sy is approx 48" tall.

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