# Holly Fern

*Cyrtomium falcatum*

Uncommon · Fern · Easy · Safe

A fern. Prefers partial shade. Wants a moisture-retentive substrate. As a species it wants water about every 7 days. Not known to be toxic.

## Holly Fern: how often should you water it?

That’s the interval our references converge on for this species indoors: roughly every 7 days between waterings, adjusted for your light and your season.

### Why we don’t give you a date.

We publish the interval this species usually wants. We don’t publish a date for your plant — nothing here measures it. The interval is a starting point you adjust from what you actually log.

Guidance is curated against general horticultural references including the RHS, the Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder, and university extension services. Each field is either published or left empty — never estimated.

## Care cadences

- **Water** — Every ~7 days
- **Clean leaves** — Every ~30 days
- **Fertilize** — Every ~30 days
- **Repot** — Every ~730 days

Not established for this species: mist. We’d rather leave them empty than guess.

## What’s known about this species

### Light

- **Exposure:** Partial shade
- **Tolerates direct sun:** No
- **Minimum light:** 550 lux
- **Daily light target:** 5 mol/m²/day

### Environment

- **Ideal temperature:** 22 °C (min 10 °C, max 27 °C)
- **Humidity:** 40–60% RH

### Soil & pot

- **Drainage:** retentive
Pot in a rich, well-drained mix; let the top inch of soil dry between waterings and repot every couple of years in spring as roots fill the container.

### Toxicity

Safe · Pet-safe
Non-toxic to cats, dogs, and horses per ASPCA (listed under both 'Holly Fern' and 'Japanese Holly Fern'); despite the name it is unrelated to true hollies (Ilex), which contain toxic saponins.

### A short profile, on purpose

1 of the fields we publish aren’t established for this species in the references we trust. Empty means unknown — not zero, and not a guess.

[Suggest a correction](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=cyrtomium-falcatum)

## The species’ year

- **Growing:** Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Dormant:** Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
- **Feed:** Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Repot:** Apr, May, Jun

A typical year for this species in a temperate northern home. It shifts with your light and your latitude — we don’t track your plant’s season, so treat this as rhythm, not schedule.

## Keep this species honest in your own log.

Verdalia holds the interval, your log moves it. Free to start.

[Start tracking](https://app.verdalia.app/register)

Verdalia publishes species guidance curated from horticultural references. It does not measure your plant — you log what you do, and the intervals adjust to what you log.

[Suggest a correction](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=cyrtomium-falcatum)

---

- [Русский](https://verdalia.app/ru/species/cyrtomium-falcatum.md)
- [Species library](https://verdalia.app/en/species.md)