Hoping y'all could give me some advice here. My foxtails are starting to get brown and yellowed leaves. The soil is potting mix, I've fed it fertilizer stuff, and it has a good layer of mulch in there. The soil still feels pretty moist but I moved some of the mulch back to help it dry out. It was in the direct TX afternoon sun, but I moved it a few days ago to the other side of patio that gets shade from house starting at about 1. I'm guessing there is some sunburn here but I'm just curious what the colors mean. From reading this post, it seems that I can't really kill this thing if I tried.

I imagine sunburn. You can cut the fronds off next Spring and it'll make a bunch of new ones.

I'd guess too much intense sun and heat and suspect water may not be getting to the middle of the rootball. Soak it a few hours submerged in a bucket or tub and then set it in partial shade to deeper shade and watch it. It looks like there are new fronds among those turning brown. I have trouble getting my container wet all the way through because the plant has crowded the pot with root growth. I expect next year it will either push out above the top of the container or stretch it since it's plastic or split it down the side. I'm not inclined to think yours got overwatered, but the heat in north Texas this year may have steamed the foliage. I'm wondering if there was some kind of excessive sun/heat event over north Texas. I had a lot of plants exposed to the sun get severely stressed very suddenly and a section of PVC pipe that's been laying around for a dozen years turn a scorched blackish/brown - like a torch had been held to it. Plants in the shade weren't effected. I think ultimately your plant will be fine. When it begins to grow new fronds or stems, you can begin cutting out the old ragged ones. If you decide to soak it in a bucket, you might try watering it as you normally do before putting it in to soak. If it floats like a fishing cork you'll know water is not penetrating fully into the root ball. These plants end up makng a fibrous, solid mat underneath the soil and when it gets really dense, water just runs around the edge and out the bottom. If you repot it and decide to split it, you'll probably need a chainsaw. I keep mine in a tray and try to keep water in the tray, but the plant soaks it up pretty fast even though the tray isn't really shallow.

I find my Asparagus fern to be very water thirsty right now since we have been having several dry heat wave days already. So what I did to augment its needs is to add a water spike to its container, plus I make sure to do a daily spray of water on all the leaves in the morning since it is just too dry here. I may do 2 fill ups of the water spike as I go around watering/checking the other water spikes in my garden daily. It is growing better now, and been sending out new growth too. Thankfully its container gets overhead shade protection from the city trees once the sun shifts west.

Used to be come summertime it gets too crunchy dry.

Photo taken today at sunset:


Our winter here is mild so it remains outdoors at that time so it can also enjoy rain if and when it comes during that time.

Tarev, that's a foxtail fern in your picture, not an asparagus fern.

Ah, its name when I got it years ago was Asparagus densiflorus 'Myers'..such a mouthful, so I just shortened it.
Isn't foxtail fern a nickname of the same?

AnnaZ said: Tarev, that's a foxtail fern in your picture, not an asparagus fern.

They are related at least, so the care is the same.

tarev said: Ah, its name when I got it years ago was Asparagus densiflorus 'Myers'..such a mouthful, so I just shortened it.
Isn't foxtail fern a nickname of the same?

I believe so.

I don't think so, Tarev. Asparagus fern (springerii……..not sure of the spelling) is used in hanginging baskets. I had a huge pot of it once and I will never buy it again. It self seeded into my likewise huge potted plumbago and I cannot get rid of it. Cannot pull it out as it's firmly entrenched in there. I have dabbed roundup on it,didn't kill it. I should probably try that again.

It lists Asparagus Fern as one of the common names. Probably one of those, someone said it and the rest of us ran with it things because I do know of the Asparagus Fern Anna mentions, but I kind of use "Asparagus Fern" interchangeably with "Foxtail Fern." And I call the other one "Asparagus Fern."


And they are both of the same genus as Asparagus, so I think saying "Asparagus Fern" is kind of a catch all for the "ferns" in the genus.

I checked this morning with meter and it says Moist when I push it deep into the soil. I'm just guessing the stress of the afternoon sun I had it in was getting to it. Might have also been a little too much fertilizer too. Thanks y'all!

I would suggest just to generously spray water on all parts of the plant early in the morning.
Heat wave is at hand..really stressful for any plants outdoors at this time. So easy for many plants to go crunchy dry above soil level.

Be careful about asparagus ferns or spider plants getting loose in the ground, vegetatively or from seeds. Either are like oak sprouts, can't be pulled and must be dug up.

I know all about that. Cannot begin to even think about pulling the one out of the pot with the plumbago. It is in there forever. Unless I can manage to kill it.

Good luck.

Anna, you may need to pull the whole root ball out and pull those apart. The asparagus makes tubers, so that is why it's too hard to pull. Eventually the asparagus roots will fill the pot, so if you want to save the other plant, it's probably necessary to make the effort to evict the asparagus.
https://natureisnurture.net/as...