20 dry shade ferns

Dryopteris dilitata 'Crispa Whitside'  British native.  This is a very nice cultivar, quite similar to the species though more vertical in habit with the main body of the frond neatly crisped. A beautiful light green as the first growths appear in the spring gradually darkening through the season.  It will remain green right through untill the spring, only losing the fronds to the hardest frosts in the early part of the year. It also has very dark scales all along the stipe which contrasts very nicely with the bright green foliage.  It is a very open,elegant fern and definitely to have in your garden.  A board buckler fern, beautiful form of moisture loving british native fern with large broad spreading fronds intricately contested and wavy. 60cm very good for naturalising in woodland and near water, all leafy parts of the frond are crispy

Dryopteries affinis stableri

Deciduous fern with stout erect or decumbent rhizomes and shuttlecock-like rosette of lance shaped to ovate, pinnately divided fronds

Robust semi green fern forming rosette of erect, bipinnatifid fronds to 1.2 m in lenght, bright yellow-green when young ,later rich green with dense persistent golden scales on stems 

Max 3ft height 
deciduous 
 

polystichum polyblepharum

Also known as Japanese Tassle fern, with broadly arching lance shaped fronds, Are mostly semi hardy evergreen ferns with short stout rhizomes and pinnatey divided fronds in a neat shuttlecock-like rosettes, this is a evergreen fern forming a shuttlecock of spreading glossy dark green bipnnate fronds attractive young fronds yellow-green, more erect and covered with hair- like scales darkening with age this is a very nice Polystichum.  Mature plants can be very attractive in early spring when the new fronds begin to unfurl.  The tips of the frond are covered in masses of a light sandy brown to gold hairs which hang pointing downwards giving rise to another common name of Golden Tassle fern. It is an easily grown plant for a shady or semi-shady area it would also look very good in a mixed border with Hosta's or with other nice leaf forms such as Rodgersia or Dicentra. This is always a very popular fern as it is pretty much trouble free and very easy to grow with the added bonus of being evergreen. 

2/3 ft height 
evergreen hardy

polystichum tsu-simense

The fronds of this species are narrow and sharply pointed making it quite distinct from others in this genus.  Over time it will clump up but will still be quite compact  and tidy.
This is a handy  fern for that small spot in a shaded trough or rockery as it is quite small and compact. 
It is as with other Polystichum evergreen and winter hardy.  I have had one planted in a neutral stony area  for several years which has never grown higher than 8/10in. no doubt if I'd looked after it  better it may have got a little bigger but it certainly won't get anywhere near the size of many of the P.setiferum variations. These Ferns are evergreen with short stout rhizomes and pinnately divided fronds in neat shuttlecock- like rosettes, A a small tufted evergreen to 45cm,with erect, narrowly lance-shaped bipinnate fronds, with slender-pointed apex and pinnae max 12 inches an Hardy.