PlantFiles: Sweet-fern
Comptonia peregrina

I've now killed this plant three times. I've been able to successfully culture it in a pot, but the moment I put it in the ground it always dies. For that mater, I've transplanted ones from the wild and established them in pots fairly easily. I just can't get them to grow in soil. There has got to be some soil requirement they need that I'm just not understanding... If someone figures that out then please post.

Sweet fern grows wild in our area of Connecticut and we just ADORE it -- it's not only beautiful but smells so sweet. My husband and I tried digging one up from the wild one time and transplanting it to a dry rocky area in our yard, but it died immediately. I've since read that it is extremely hard to almost impossible to transplant a wild one and that you should look for nursery grown plants. We were hiking this weekend along some power lines in a hot, dry, rocky area and there was a whole field of sweetfern and I was inspired to see if I could buy some online. I just found some for sale on eBay from seller "WildthingsNursery" and ordered them -- I'm hoping I can get them to grow in my yard! I'll report back and let everyone know if they made it or not.

This plant so far for me has been difficult to establish. I have tried to start numerous small plants that have been transplanted, and they have all wilted away.

Clint

I used to have these plants growing wild in colonies near my childhood home in dry, dusty sunny fields in SE Massachusetts. I remember thinking that the leaves looked like crocodiles. The stems are very tough and woody, and the plants are very difficult to remove from the ground. The smell, while not exactly pleasant to my nose, is distinct, and a bit like citronella. On a warm day, these little shrubs seemed to be enveloped in the scent, and it could be smelled from quite a distance away.

Sweet fern grows wild along my street - several neighbors have it growing in abundance. We have two 3x4' shrubs and two that are still single stem, 1-2' tall. They are growing on a bank, and seem to be hanging on in the face of some serious erosion.

The fragrance is strong enough to catch traces of it as you walk by, although I had to roll a leaf between my fingers to verify exactly where it was coming from.

I couldn't find anyone who could identify what it was, and early searches and modern books all failed me. One night I was flipping through a 1930's era book "Our Northern Shrubs" and there it was - very distinctive long leaves, that look like overlapping alternate plates that give it a fern-like look, hence the common name.

It does a great job as a supporting shrub, and would work well in a woodland garden. Probably wouldn't be well suited for more formal affairs, however.