How NOT to Kill an Indoor Fern: 3 Things That Helped Me Crack the Code

I love ferns, but they don't love me. I buy Bostons and Kimberly Queens for my front porch every summer and for years tried to overwinter them indoors, but it was always a fail. Despite my best efforts, these ferns would just dry up and drop about a million crunchy brown leaves a day all over my floor. I got so tired of vacuuming up leaves that I self-imposed a ban on having ferns (or any plant with tiny leaves) inside.

Yet I'm still drawn to them. So against my better judgment, I bought a couple small rabbit's foot ferns at a local greenhouse a couple months ago. Thinking I'd probably kill them within a few days, I didn't even bother to repot them. I just tucked them into a ceramic cachepot that has a hole in the bottom and hoped for the best.

Guess what? My ferns are not only still alive but they are thriving! This is the first time I have kept an indoor fern alive longer than a couple weeks. I attribute my success to three simple things I did differently this time around. These three easy practices are no doubt common knowledge for expert plant parents, but I have been amazed at what a difference they have made.

Location, Location, Location

Much to my surprise, my ferns seem to love being on my kitchen table. I had never tried that spot before because my past ferns were always too large to put there. Instead I would park it in a plant stand in the corner of a room that still got some light (where it would proceed to drop every leaf over the course of a few weeks).

I think the kitchen table is working for two reasons. One, it gets diffused southern light. And two, putting a plant in such a prominent location makes it almost impossible to forget to water it. Since these ferns are in my traffic pattern every single day, I do better at remembering to check the dryness of the soil and adding water when needed. Having a plant in such a convenient spot makes it easier to give it good care with minimal effort.

Mist Early and Often

That high-visibility perch also makes it easier for me to remember my second fern care practice: regular, consistent, thorough misting, That doesn't mean misting only when I happen to remember. It means giving my ferns a good misting at least once a day, often more.

Again, location is key: I keep the mister in the kitchen cabinet nearest the table so it's very easy to grab and use. If I had one of those special cute misters, I'd just leave it right on the table, but since I've managed to break every one of them I have ever owned, I just use a plastic spray bottle. So far, so good.

Rock On

I've saved my biggest fern care breakthrough for last: pebbles. This time, I set my pot of ferns on a bed of pebbles spread on a platter. I keep the pebbles covered in water at all times. I had heard of this practice before and understood its purpose—as the water evaporates, the humidity level around the plant is increased—but I never dreamed it would work this well.

I have two caveats, however. First, about once a week I have to take the platter of pebbles to the sink and give it a good rinse. Otherwise a gross film builds up on the water (I don't know why). The first couple times I did it, I thought I needed to take the pebbles off the platter and rinse them in a colander, which required enough effort that I was not likely to repeat the job weekly. I have since discovered that if I'm careful, I can get the pebbles sufficiently rinsed right on the platter. Just be sure not to spill any of them down the garbage disposal.

The second caveat is that my family now makes fun of me for watering rocks, but I think that's a small price to pay for finally having a thriving fern after so many dead ones.