Western sword ferns, Polystichum munitum, can get 4-5 feet tall if happily sited and nearly as wide. But I can't see them being the slightest bit common in Atlanta......nor likely to grow to that size in a container!

Yeah, I'm leaning toward fake, but no harm in asking.

Thing is ferns were such a common and beloved 'old fashioned' plant, or 'plant of olden times'. The only plants I remember being houseplants in my born-in-the-Edwardian era grandma's house were ferns. So maybe there was some Atlanta florists at the time who could deliver ginormous ferns, for a price. Only the best for the Presbyterians LOL. Also by the time of this picture I believe the somewhat famous fern nursery in Florida I've heard about would have been established, maybe they were producing these kind of plants and delivering them throughout the south.

cf: https://www.delandhouse.com/article_ferneries

They may not be fake, but not a living plant either; they might be arrangements of cut fronds from an ostrich fern or similar sp.

I agree that they're not growing. But they do look real to me.

I did an doubletake when my eyes finally figured out how huge those plants were, I did not spot the folks in the front at first...

and yea, another vote for the possibility that they could be arrangements with freshly cut plant material

Maybe these? Native to SW US: Nephrolipes biserrata (Giant Sword Fern) 3'-8'

Giant sword fern

Olychick - even if not what's in the picture, that's a great lead for being a real fern species that looks like it. Including the upright, dense appearance.

https://www.plantlifefarms.com/Plant-Name/Nephrolepis-biserrata-Macho-Fern

And they are native to Florida, too.

WAG.. norfolk pine came to mind...

compare here: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/files/resize/news/images/Norfolk113007-400x511.jpg

from this link: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2007/nov/072301.htm

Thanks Ken. That had occurred to me but decided they looked more fern like.

I think the best idea so far is that they are made of real fronds that have been preserved and arranged. However still not completely behind that. It may never be resolved unless someone comes along who is simultaneously a pteridologist and a long time member of the National Altar Guild Association!

Leaf form is not that of Norfolk Island Pine. Definitely a fern.

i agree on these pix.. but the NIPine is one of the few houseplant 'trees'.. that would work indoors.. and im pretty sure ive seen them in some churches... especially if there were large windows behind the altar ...

flora.. you dont think my pic links.. at 60 feet away.. MIGHT .. just maybe.. look like the plants in the pic???

ken

These are obviously "arrangements". There are two distinct forms, the majority of them with the fronds being arranged in a vaguely natural shape, as if arising from a central crown. But notice the three outermost plants: the highest one, and the ones on the far left and far right. The fronds are on a vertical stem. No NIP ever grew like the majority, and no fern ever grew like the outliers (not even tree ferns look like that). Therefore, I suspect these are just florist arrangements of fern fronds, made specifically as decorations, just for this space.

Exactly. I just couldn't be bothered to write it all out.

I was bored, Floral, lol.

Interestingly, this morning, I saw a wedding photo here in FL from the 1890s that had huge arrangements of palmetto fronds arranged on the altar in a similar fashion.

Ok but even if arrangements, I'm hard pressed to think of a 'standard readily available fern' in most of the eastern USA, with fronds quite that big. I've seen some big ostrich ferns in gardens...they just don't seem that big.

So this thread bumping just inspired me to do a last round of googling. Found this:

Cibotiums are large Neotropical and Hawaiian tree ferns. I'm now thinking perhaps there was once a trade in cutting, shipping to the US, and somehow preserving the fronds.

A google reverse image search matches the architecture to Fort Street Presbyterian in Detroit. Those Calvinists and their giant ferns!

Tree ferns grow quite well here in west central FL. There's a nature preserve here that has a bunch of them near the edge of a large lake - rather marshy. They've been growing there for generations too.

https://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/australian-tree-fern.html

Royal ferns get pretty big too - I have them in my yard. The fronds can get about 4 feet long.

Carol,

As for the ones in the nature preserve, you are almost certainly talking about this one...called a 'tree fern', but rather modest compared to the real ones. https://www.fnps.org/plant/ctenitis-sloanei

Aussie tree ferns have always been somewhat uncommon landscaping material in the US, even in the few climates where they can be grown, and I doubt the ornamental specimens were having their fronds harvested. Certainly those turn of the century Florida fern nurseries were aware of them, and if even Cyatheas were easy to grow, they'd be all over South Florida as they are 'all over' milder subtropical climates like the Illawarra south of Sydney. (so many huge damn tree ferns you kind of go eye blind to them after a while...they grow like Mimosa trees on the edge of a Virginia highway!)

Since the 2nd vintage picture gives a genus, I'm going with that as the most likely source of this kind of foliage, whether the plants were actually sometimes grown in Victorian greenhouses and temporarily lent out for display, or cut and preserved. I read about fern preservation, apparently there's a long recognized technique using glycerol that will retain the shape of the fronds but not the color. After that, surely green spray paint of some kind was available by 1900.

I've never had a lick of concern for this topic but surely somewhere there must be a book written about the history of wreaths, flower arranging, etc. what is all of that called as a Dewey decimal path? "Foliar and Floral Arts"?