Growing inheritance: 114-year-old Boston fern follows family through generations
Dailypress.com
About four years ago, Evelyn Edwards, 89, almost lost a living legacy in her family — a 114-year-old Boston fern.
"It was really bad looking," says her son, Wayne, who helps care for the plant.
Frantic with worry, son and mother took the ailing fern to Anderson's
Home and Garden Showplace in Newport News where a greenhouse expert
immediately spotted the problem. The root-bound fern needed a bigger
pot and fertilizer. The family paid the $5 bill and took the repotted
fern home, holding their breath and hoping for a good outcome.
"Keeping it in the family is most important," says Evelyn.
The emergency care worked. The fern looks healthier than ever, they
say. Sitting outdoors in fall sunshine, the fern's dark-green fronds
drape over the edges of the pot, hiding all evidence there's even a
container beneath them.
Evelyn's fern is a division taken from the original plant her
grandmother, Marietta Good, born 1870, started when she was a young
woman. Family photos through the years show potted pieces of the fern
on front porches and in front of young women, including Evelyn's
mother, Ollie May Kingan, born in 1895. Farming was a way of life for
the Good family living on 60 acres in rural Virginia. Amos Good,
husband to Marietta, was also a contractor who worked on White House
remodeling jobs in the 1940s. As time went on, he built a family house
with 13 bedrooms to house his 12 children and Evelyn when she was born
in a small town called Tenth Legion in Rockingham County, about 94
miles from Washington, D.C. He also made sure his wife had latticework
to grow vines on and planting spaces in the yard.
"The whole family loved plants and kids," says Evelyn. "The house and yard were always filled with flowers of all kinds."
When Marietta died, Evelyn's mother inherited the plant, which by then
had produced many offspring given to others. When Evelyn's mother
passed away in 1984, the fern ended up in Newport News with Evelyn.
Now that the plant is back in good health, Wayne and his mother give it
special attention. During winter, it stays in a cool back bedroom
because the plant drops leaves when it gets too hot indoors. While
autumn's days are still warm, they sit it outdoors on the patio and
bring it indoors at night.
"We don't let it stay outdoors if it's going to be below 45 degrees," says Wayne.
A daily misting and regular feedings of Miracle-Gro help maintain its
good looks, the Edwards say. But, lugging the plant inside is getting
to be a back-aching job for the two. When Wayne wasn't home one evening
recently, Evelyn toted it inside herself, worrying it was getting too
cold outdoors.
"Boy, it's heavy," she says.
Although potting the fern into a larger container worked wonders years
ago, Wayne knows it needs something more drastic next year — its root
ball sliced in half or quarters and each smaller division potted on its
own.
"We can't keep potting it like it is," he says. "It's grown six or seven inches this summer and it's getting too big to handle."