Adiantum tibeticum 'Tum Tum'

A delightful dwarf evergreen selection made by Dutch fern specialist Wouter van Driel, ‘Tum Tum’ is an unusually compact form of this Himalayan maidenhair. It forms a slowly spreading carpet of finely divided, fresh-green fronds on slender, dark stipes, with the emerging foliage flushed an attractive bronze. Small, elegant and remarkably hardy, it makes an excellent low fern for the woodland garden.

Van Driel was a serious fern enthusiast and selector, developing and maintaining numerous distinctive forms. Adiantum venustum ‘Tum Tum’ is specifically recorded among his own selections and described as an evergreen dwarf form. The original source of the plant before it entered his collection, however, remains undocumented, and we have found no evidence that Van Driel himself collected it in the wild. It is therefore best described simply as a Wouter van Driel selection rather than attributing a specific wild collection.

The nomenclature surrounding this plant is rather more complicated than its modest appearance suggests. It has long been grown and traded as Adiantum venustum ‘Tum Tum’, while A. tibeticum has variously been treated as a subspecies of A. venustum or as a distinct species. The latter treatment is currently favoured by Kew.

Best in a cool, moist, humus-rich soil in shade or dappled shade. Slow to establish but increasingly handsome as it spreads, and one of the more dependable hardy maidenhairs for the British garden.

• Hardiness: H5–H6, approximately -15 to -20°C
• Height: 10–20 cm
• Spread: 30–60 cm
• Foliage: Evergreen; bronze when emerging
• Flowers: None
• Soil: Moist, humus-rich, well drained
• Aspect: Shade to dappled shade
• Habit: Low, creeping and spreading
• Origin: Horticultural selection by Wouter van Driel, Netherlands

Nomenclature: Adiantum tibeticum Ching & Y.X.Lin; historically treated as A. venustum subsp. tibeticum. ‘Tum Tum’ has principally circulated in horticulture as A. venustum ‘Tum Tum’.