Have a look at the Best Indoor Ferns that will make for great houseplants! Grow them in pots to showcase in hanging baskets for best display!
If you want a houseplant that stands out from the rest with its lush tropical foliage, then here are the Best Indoor Ferns you must grow!
Best Indoor Ferns
1. Button Fern
Botanical Name: Pellaea rotundifolia
This beautiful, easy-to-grow fern comes from New Zealand. The name comes from the round, small leaflets or ‘buttons’ on slim stems.
Growing Tips: It adjusts well to average indoor conditions.
2. Bird’s Nest Fern
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Botanical Name: Asplenium nidus
This easy-care epiphyte fern offers leathery, strap-shaped, shiny, bright apple green fronds patterned in dark brown to black midribs and wavy edges.
Growing Tips: Use a humidifier to provide the humidity it needs.
Here are the best epiphyte ferns you can grow
3. Maidenhair Fern
Shutterstock/Young Swee Ming
Botanical Name: Adiantum
This popular fern shows off delicate, light, lacy, airy, bright green leaves on slender black stems. The plant looks great in hanging baskets
Growing Tips: This fern variety needs slight moisture and bright indirect sunlight to thrive.
4. Kangaroo Fern
Botanical Name: Microsorum diversifolium
Native to Western Australia, it has odd-shaped, long bright green fronds that grow from creeping fuzzy rhizomes. It spillover beautifully from the sides of the pot.
Growing Tips: Water it regularly but avoid overwatering. This fern prefers warmth but can survive up to 50 F (10 C).
5. Cretan Brake Fern
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Botanical Name: Pteris cretica
This evergreen fern from Europe, Africa, and Asia exhibits pinnate, flat green fronds with attractive variegation and wavy edges.
Growing Tips: Read the growing details here in detail.
6. Boston Fern
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Botanical Name: Nephrolepis exaltata
Also known as sword or ladder fern, the blue-green sword-shaped fronds stay evergreen with arching gorgeous erect leaflets that grow large.
Growing Tips: It does well in low light with minimalistic attention. Read the growing needs in detail here.
7. Staghorn Fern
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Botanical Name: Platycerium
This beautiful epiphytic fern features exotic green fronds resembling the horns of an elk or male deer. The foliage grows in a range of sizes and shapes.
Growing Tips: You can propagate this fern by side shoots or spores. Read more growing details here.
8. Lemon Button Fern
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Botanical Name: Nephrolepis cordifolia ‘Lemon Button’
This lovely fern offers tiny, golden-green round button-like leaflets. The long, arching fronds look great in terrariums or hanging baskets.
Growing Tips: Plant it in an area with medium to bright light and high humidity.
9. Crocodile Fern
Botanical Name: Microsorum musifolium
The reptilian, scaly, strap-like bright green leaves have different features compared to common ferns. Grow it in a hanging basket for the best display.
Growing Tips: Grow this cultivar in medium to low light and highly humid area.
10. Rabbit’s Foot Fern
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Botanical Name: Humata tyermanii
Humata tyermanii displays dark green, delicate, fine-textured fronds on fuzzy root-like stems (rhizomes) that crawl downside of its container.
Growing Tips: It prefers bright, indirect light.
11. Cotton Candy Boston Fern
Botanical Name: Nephrolepis ‘Cotton Candy’
‘Cotton Candy’ offers soft, fuzzy, and bright green fronds. You can grow this fern both indoors and outdoors in pots or hanging baskets. It is one of the Best Indoor Ferns!
Growing Tips: Grow this fern in a shady location outdoors and on an Eastern direction window indoors.
12. Japanese Holly Fern
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Botanical Name: Cyrtomium falcatum
The serrated, sharp-tipped long deep green leathery fronds look like holly branches. It thrives well indoors with minimum maintenance.
Growing Tips: Grow it in partial sun or shade.
13. Blue Star Fern
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Botanical Name: Phlebodium aureum
The blue-green fronds are sometimes speckled with a silver or gray hue. This epiphyte fern adapts fast to any indoor environment.
Growing Tips: Use well-draining soil, or an equal mix of perlite, pumice, or gravel will work. Read more here.
14. Squirrel’s Foot Fern
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Botanical Name: Davallia bullata
The lacy, green fronds look beautiful in hanging baskets. In the wild, the plant’s rhizomes wrap around a tree to cling to them, hence the name.
Growing Tips: It grows best in indirect light and high humid conditions.
15. Strap Fern
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Botanical Name: Campyloneurum phyllitidis
This epiphyte fern shows off long, slender light green fronds. For a beautiful display, you can grow it in hanging baskets.
Growing Tips: It grows well in dappled light.
16. Lucky Lemon Fern
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Botanical Name: Nephrolepis cordifolia ‘Lucky Lemon’
‘Lucky Lemon’ shows off green, lemony fronds and has a fast growth rate. It is quite easy to grow and demands less attention.
Growing Tips: It performs well in a low-light indoor environment.
17. Austral Gem Fern
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Botanical Name: Asplenium ‘Austral Gem’
‘Austral Gem’ is an easy-to-grow houseplant with thick waxy fronds. The round-oval leaves make it a pretty unique fern from the rest on this list!
Growing Tips: It does well in low or medium-light and evenly moist potting mix.
18. Asparagus Fern
apartmenttherapy
Botanical Name: Asparagus aethiopicus
The lacy-green foliage looks exquisite when kept in a compact and bushier form. You can grow it in baskets and macrame holders, and it is one of the best hanging ferns.
Growing Tips: Grow this fern in humid locations or mist regularly, particularly in summer.
19. Christmas Fern
shutterstock/MarinaTr
Botanical Name: Polystichum acrostichoides
As the name sounds, the glossy and green fronds give the best color around Christmas time! For the best color, keep it where it gets bright and indirect light.
