Ronni, they are naturally long, but the lower light level of indoors and winter make them stretch even longer. Breathe deep.
It's really difficult to take a picture that captures the length of these TENTACLES. The images sort of fades out at the bottom, and you can't see how they actually drag on the floor! I really think I'm going to have to start calling this thing Audrey.
Oh wow, it's totally coming after you! Run! If the plants outside in the ground at my Mom's do this, I've never noticed. Maybe those tentacles just get lost in the leaf/mulch.
Ronni, I finally got a picture of my Asparagus fern with its berries full ripe.I didn't think to take the picture of the full length of the fronds, but they are pretty long, fyi. Asparagus fern with berries ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
A plant that grows its own escape rope. Soon the plant will crawl down the rope and run away. Watch it carefully, they are sneaky. Jerry
Oh wow! It's really gorgeous with those berries, Carolyn! It's a lot fuller than mine, too. Here's what I don't understand…..in that picture of yours, there are shorter fronds, fully leafed (is that a word?) towards the center of the plant, and the longer fronds/stems whatever they are cascading over the sides of the pot. That's what I would expect the growth pattern to be, the plant putting out new growth towards the center, the growth leafing out, and then that new growth getting longer and heavier till it begins to droop over the sides of the pot. My fern isn't doing that, as evidenced by those pictures. The new fronds are longer than all the rest of the current ones, and as of this moment, are still completely bare. No leaves, no berries, just long……tentacles! Really, that's just what they look like, long, evil…..tentacles reaching out to GET ME IN BED WHILE I SLEEP! <deep breath> …… Sorry. Got a little carried away there for a minute.
Yes, Ronni...breathe deep...again....again....now, those "tentacles" should develop into the nice bushy fronds you see on my plant, but with winter sunshine being so weak and the humidity being much dryer, it will struggle to reach its full growth for the time being, is my opinion. But give it time and as soon as your weather is nice enough put it out on your deck and remember to bring it in if it is going to frost. The other thing to do with it is to give it a haircut and divide the bulbousy root system and you will see a lot of new growth come on from that, but wait until the weather is a little nicer. I take a butcher knife and slice right through the root mass, in halves or quarters, just leave a few fronds on each section. Then you will see a very full basket for the summer. (You can chop off those fronds about 1/2 way up the stem. No one will notice or care. Your main objective is to get it through the Winter, right? in the Spring/Summer it will thrive) You won't see berries unless the plant has flowered. The flowers are pretty insignificant, but visible at the same time and it will take from July until Dec. to see the berries ripen to red. I pulled some off a few weeks ago to start them, but I haven't seen a frond poke through yet.
I just went out to look in the greenhouse and thought of Ronni's fern. How is that attack frond doing? Asparagus Fern berry Mine now has berries on it too. Just wondering how long that frond got and if it filled out yet?
I finally moved it out of my bedroom. The concept of "attack fern with tentacles" and "sleep" were mutually exclusive! It's in my living room now, by a sunny window. Those tentacles are still growing, and there are still no berries. Now I'm worried for my dogs, who, in their utter innocence, go over and sniff at those tentacles from time to time. I tense when they do that, expecting at any moment that those tentacles will spring to life, sensing food within their grasp, and in the blink of an eye they will coil around my little dogs, squeezing harder and harder............ Well, it's just too gruesome to contemplate! I can't WAIT for summer so that I can excommunicate the damn thing to the back deck where the worst it can do is to capture some poor unsuspecting squirrel!
Ronni, You will not see any berries unless the plant flowers and the blossoms are pollinated. That will happen during the summer if it is outside and has sufficient growing conditions (which would be really hard to not get...unless it was dead, then nothing would happen). If you cut it all off , carefully and with a pair of gloves and hand pruners, it will throw out new fronds and since there is better light conditions now it probably will be much less leggy as it grows.
Oh wow. Carolyn, thanks for that! Certainly something to consider. I think what I'll do is leave it be for the moment, wait till it's warmer then put it outside. It exploded from its original size to the abundant, leggy plant it is now after it summered on my back deck last year. So I won't do anything with it till I can get it outside for the warmer weather. At that point I will do some judicious pruning and see if I can get it to understand that those tentacles just are very scary and NOT acceptable....we'll see if it's teachable or not!
