Frond Memories

At 72 years old and measuring five feet across, Pocahontas the fern is the matriarch of a sun-soaked solarium facing Beaufort’s Front Street, her residence since 1959.

Pocahontas was given to the Way family in a coffee can — a gift from Brady Way’s first-grade teacher, Myrtle Piver, to his mother, Martha. Although Brady can’t remember why his mom chose the name Pocahontas, he says that she ferried the fern through its first three and a half decades.

An unwieldy green contrastto the house’s clean mid-century lines, Pocahontas survived the two Way sons’ indoor football games, hurricanes (tides from Hurricane Donna brushed the brick front steps), and several repottings. The key to Pocahontas’s longevity?

“Skillful neglect,” says Brady, now her principal caretaker along with his wife, Shirley. Pocahontas’s care regimen: water once a week (more than a gallon), Miracle-Gro every six months to a year, a 90-degree stand rotation, and a stylish trim every six weeks or so.

The plant’s one major health incident came in 2021, when her plump fronds began to thin and shrivel to brown at an alarming rate. The Ways split Pocahontas into separate containers, creating a “new” plant that they call Little Pokey. Both ferns rebounded with gusto.

Over her seven decades, Pocahontas has gained minor celebrity status with Way family friends, the couple’s bridge club, and their grandchildren. Anticipating the eventual sale of Brady’s childhood home, he and Shirley converted their back porch into a sunroom to ensure that Pocahontas will still have plenty of sunshine and room to grow.

– Originally published in Our State Magazine. Also, the moment when I realized that if I’m getting paid to go talk to folks in one of my favorite towns about an ancient plant, I must be doing something right with my career.