Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’ Seeds | Sprenger’s Asparagus Fern

Sprenger's Asparagus Fern (Asparagus densiflorus Sprengeri) with arching stems of fine needle-like foliage — Sprenger’s Asparagus Fern (*Asparagus densiflorus* ‘Sprengeri’): Asparagaceae, the trailing basket classic from South Africa.

LATIN NAME: Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri

COMMON NAME: Sprenger’s Asparagus Fern

Plant Profile

Sprenger’s Asparagus Fern is a vigorous, arching perennial from South Africa that is neither an asparagus vegetable nor a fern: the fine, needle-like greenery is made of flattened stems called cladodes, and the plant is a true asparagus cousin, complete with sharp spines in the leaf axils of mature growth. Its long stems scramble and trail up to a metre or more, spilling from baskets and borders alike, and small, fragrant white flowers are followed by bright red berries that persist for weeks.

Below ground it runs, thickening into tuberous roots that store water through dry spells and push new crowns outward with determination. In frost-free climates it has escaped gardens in Florida, Queensland and elsewhere, and that energy is worth knowing about before planting it into open ground.

Science & Biotechnology

The species has been a workhorse of comparative horticulture: the ‘Sprengeri’ form and its upright foxtail relative are the same species selected for habit, and studies of the two have looked at how selection has shifted stem geometry and cladode packing within one gene pool. Its foliage has also served physiology classes as a textbook example of a cladode, a stem doing the work of a leaf. Its spread record is more sober: in warm, moist climates the tuberous roots and bird-dispersed berries let it colonise ground layers and outcompete native understorey, and it is listed as invasive in parts of Florida, Hawaii and Queensland.

Seed germinates readily and true, which is why it is one of the easiest of all basket plants to raise from a packet.

Uses & Benefits

In a hanging basket it is unbeatable value: months of fine, cascading, low-maintenance greenery that tolerates the neglect, low light and missed waterings that kill fussier basket plants. The red berries carry the display into winter indoors, and the plant takes years to outgrow a large pot.

Outdoors it suits shaded courtyards and frost-free borders where it can be contained, but in warm climates it should be grown in pots with the berries dead-headed, precisely to keep it out of the surrounding ground. The berries are mildly toxic and the mature stem spines are real, so keep it away from small children’s hands and paths.

Growing from Seed

Soak the berries, squeeze out the seed and rinse, then sow fresh into a free-draining compost, covering to the seed’s own depth and holding at 20 to 25 °C; germination is good and within three to five weeks. Pot the seedlings on individually as soon as they show a few cladodes.

Grow them on in bright, indirect light and let the compost dry slightly at the surface between waterings. For baskets, set three or four young plants around the rim and pinch once to force branching; feed little and often through the growing season. In cold climates bring the pot in before frost and cut it back hard in spring if it has tired.

Our Take

The forgiving basket classic: fine greenery, red berries, and tolerance that borders on stubbornness. Keep it potted in warm climates, and mind the spines and the berries.

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