Martha Stewart takes home a bit of the Seattle area

It's official -- ferns are in. Martha Stewart was in town last weekend and shopped at the Hardy Fern Foundation's sale, held at the University of Washington Botanic Garden's Center for Urban Horticulture. She left with three flats of ferns after local fern expert Sue Olsen helped her shop.

Stewart had a great eye for interesting plants, says Richie Steffen, coordinator of horticulture for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanic Garden, who also helped Stewart shop.

"She was anxious to get the right ferns for her zone," Olsen says. But Stewart's Northeast garden is in USDA zone 5 -- much colder than our zone 8 -- so her purchases were split into two groups: outdoor and greenhouse.

Stewart is no slick celebrity garden "personality." Those who helped her said she asked serious horticultural questions, and it was clear she knew about plants.

You're dying to know what she bought, aren't you? Olsen says that Stewart was particularly eager to get a dwarf maidenhair fern (Adiantum aleuticum 'Subpumilum') and a large-leaved holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum). The latter isn't hardy for her area, but Olsen says Stewart made note of which ferns would need to go in a greenhouse.

Another Stewart purchase: the crested royal fern (Osmunda regalis 'Cristata'), a 2005 Great Plant Pick.

She also bought four autographed copies of Olsen's new book, "Encyclopedia of Garden Ferns" (Timber, 440 pages, $59.95).

Stewart was given a tour of the Elisabeth C. Miller Library and its rare-book collection by library manager Karen Preuss and Botanic Garden director David Mabberley. Look for a link on Stewart's Web site (marthastewartliving.com) to the library's Plant Answer Line. But, of course, you e-mail your garden questions directly: hortlib@u.washington.edu.

For more information on the Hardy Fern Foundation: hardyferns.org.