Boston fern has a fun and unusual history. Find out where the plant originated from and how it was discovered and got its name.
Boston Fern Care
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Today we have an addition to my series on the history of various house plants, and today we’re going to be talking about Boston Fern. Featuring roughly sword-like lime green fronds, Boston fern is a popular house plant with an interesting history. Of all ferns, it is one of the easier ones to grow indoors. I do have a care video on the plant which I will link below. This is a part of my plant stories Series, so I’m going to tell you a little bit about Boston Fern’s fun history.
Botanically known as nephrolepis exaltata bostoniensis, Boston fern has been around for more than 100 years. The species from which Boston fern comes from originates from a fern that is native throughout Florida and can be found around the Pacific Rim in tropical areas. The Boston fern was discovered in a shipment of 200 plants back in 1894. The shipment was going from a Philadelphia florist to FC Becker, a florist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which just happens to be across the river from Boston.
Becker noticed the plant, which he saw to be unusual in that it had wider fronds than many of the other ferns and an attractive hanging habit instead of upright stiff fronds as you’ll find in many ferns. He singled out the plant from that shipment and began propagating it. Two years later, a London botanist identified the plant as nephrolepis exaltata and suggested naming the cultivar Bostoniensis because it was discovered there by Becker and propagated by him.
Once there were enough plants propagated and sold, Boston fern became a very popular plant in the industry for its lovely good looks and the fact that it was easier to grow indoors than many other types of ferns. Back then at the turn of the century in the early 1900s, the plant became very popular, gracing homes and public buildings, and its sales soared at that time and continued to soar over the decades. As you know and probably have seen, this is a very popular house plant and it continues to remain so and be an all-time favorite in terms of ferns for indoor growing.
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