One fern may begin as a rich deep green completing the season in a golden-tan. Another may have new growth in a pale green changing over to bronze-red when winter approaches. If you can find a nursery with a large selection of ferns, stand and look at the rows of different species. Some ferns, such as the Cinnamon or Sensitive, have separate stems carrying the fertile spores and are quite decorative. Colors can range from the tan or brown of the Cinnamon to the shiny olive-black of the Sensitive fern.
Colors generally run from tan to brown and into mahogany and bronze-red.
One fern may begin the season in wine-red maturing to mahogany. Others, such as the Maidenhair fern, have wiry black stems. There is a Lady Fern that has red stems. Foliage texture, size and color, along with stems and spore casings all combine to form plants that truly are more than green filler for the garden. Japanese painted fern Dryopteris erythrosora Autumn fern Culture Ferns, in general, are no more difficult to grow than a flowering perennial.