On a recent visit to a conservatory, I visited a special room known as the fern house. There, with ideal conditions carefully maintained against the 7 degree weather outdoors, the plants were thriving. These plants are ancient in origins and somewhat primitive. Rather than reproducing with flowers and seeds, they form spores on the bottoms of the leaves which spread and start other plants. Growing among them were some truly ancient plants known as cycads. The effect was beautiful with ferns growing thick creating a lush, jungle look.

That is what we look for when we introduce houseplants into our homes.

Although people do plan living rooms around the sofa and carpets, many bring in houseplants to soften the overall effect and add something living to the environment. It is not really the jungle look people are after with houseplants. After all, people do have to find seats on the sofa and see one another across the room. What they are really seeking is the look of health, grace and something living to highlight the décor. Ferns are a beautiful addition on stands in corners, hanging on stairwells, or tumbling over the edge of planters.

Although they are beautiful, they are not always happy in homes. In the conservatory I visited, the temperature was a constant, hovering at about 68 degrees. With so many plants clustered together, they created their own humid environment without the need of a humidifier. The cloudy winter sky put the light at just the right level. During the summer, the gardeners will provide shade.

In their natural environment in the jungle, these are the conditions ferns experience. They are understory plants with taller plants above them shading them from direct sun, plenty of loose, decayed organic matter on the rainforest floor to grow in, and rain pretty much every day. The temperatures don’t vary much, either.

Providing exactly those conditions indoors can be a challenge, but homes do have some of those characteristics naturally. For example, most home temperatures range between 65 and 80 degrees — pretty close to the natural conditions for a fern. The light is very low, which is usually lower than the ferns require. It is difficult to tell actual light levels with our eyes because they are so adept at adjusting to whatever light is available.

The humidity in most homes is very low. In the summer months, our desert climate sees to that. In the winter, forced air heating makes matters even worse, often lowering humidity below 10 percent.

As a result, ferns often decline or turn brown growing indoors. People conclude that they don’t have a green thumb when this happens, but the reality is their house is not cooperating.

Don’t give up. While you may choose to resort to tougher, more house-friendly plants, there are ways to rectify the ferns’ living conditions. Although they do have ideal conditions to grow in, they also have the capacity to adapt to less-than-perfect conditions.

The ideal growing temperature is between 65 and 70 degrees. With the cost of energy, many people have been lowering the thermostat. That can be to your plants’ advantage.

Light should be neither high nor excessively low. Place your plants where they get a dose of sunshine each day through a window. However, don’t place them right next to a south-facing window. Experiment a little. In the winter, you may put them closer with a curtain over the window and place them back away further in the summer. An east-facing window is probably a better option. You can also place fluorescent lights near them to get the right intensity.

Work on the humidity. If you put a humidifier on your furnace, both your skin and the plant will benefit. If that is not an option, try grouping the fern with other houseplants. As they respire they create a more humid microenvironment around them. A small humidifier like people use to relieve the symptoms of a cold works well, but requires daily attention. A pebble tray is probably the easiest way to supply a continual source of humidity.

A pebble tray is nothing more than a flat pan filled with gravel, fish tank rocks or similar rocks. You add water to the gravel, bringing the level up to about an inch below the rock surface. Place the plants on top of the gravel, carefully making sure the pot does not rest in the water. As the water in the pebble tray evaporates, it creates a humid microclimate right above it.

That everyday rain typical to rainforests does not apply to them in your home. By placing the plants in pots where roots are confined, the water requirements automatically change. Ferns grow best in good potting soil with a high proportion of organic matter. Keep the soil moist, but not wet. When the soil surface begins to feel dry to the touch, add more water and water deeply enough that some drips through the bottom holes of the pot.

Oxygen is as important to the plant roots as to the part above ground. As water runs through the soil it draws fresh air behind it, providing the needed oxygen to the roots. Do not keep the soil ball soggy, which cuts off the air supply to the root and promotes root rot.

When the ferns are thriving, you may want to propagate more or give the roots more room to grow. Although the plants are not in outdoor conditions, the day length in the winter and summer are different and the plants respond by growing more quickly as the days gradually grow longer. You will get the best results in the plant adapting and growing by repotting in the spring.

Ferns form side shoots as they expand. You can propagate other plants by transplanting the side shoots, or dividing the mother plant.

If you are really into plant propagation and like a horticultural challenge, you might wish to try starting plants with spores. The spores are dust-like particles enclosed in cases arranged as symmetrical dots on the undersides of mature leaves. Sometimes people mistake the spores for an insect infestation. However, insect eggs are generally laid in clusters while spores are spaced apart in regular intervals across the bottom of the leaves.

To try growing new plants from spores, place a frond with mature spores on it inside a clear plastic bag. Leave it there until the spores dry out and disintegrate. Empty the contents of the bag onto a sheet of white paper and clear away leaf parts leaving only the brown, dusty spores.

Sprinkle the spores across a smooth surface of a pot of moistened, high organic potting soil. Do this away from fans or vents since the tiny particles can easily waft away in the air.

Place the container in a dish of water until the water seeps up and darkens the soil surface. Then put the pot, still in the dish of water, inside a plastic bag and place it in a 65 to 70 degree area. It will take a few days to a few weeks for the spores to begin to grow. In the case of staghorn fern, the process can take as long as a year. The surface of the mixture will at some point become covered with what looks like a green slime. Don’t be alarmed, that’s just the intermediate phase of a fern’s life cycle.

That slime is a vehicle for the male and female parts of the plants to merge and form plantlets. The slime will dry up after the plants begin to grow. About six months after the spores were sown, the ferns will begin to send up tiny fronds. When the fronds are an inch to an inch and half tall, transplant them in clumps into a gardener’s flat or planting tray.

Then give them the conditions described above and eventually you should have an assortment of healthy, mature ferns.