[Video] Giant Fern Named Jeff Goes Viral: Denver Family Hauls the Plant Saved 15 Years Ago Indoors Every Fall
A giant fern kept by a Denver family has gone viral on social media. According to ABC News, the fern, named Jeff, has grown so large that moving it indoors for the winter each fall takes the whole family, and this year a neighbor's help as well. ABC News' Good Morning America aired reporter Danny New's interview with the family, the Runyans of Denver, Denver County, Colorado, on November 9.
The fern's story began 15 years ago. Jeff Runyan's parents had bought an ordinary basket fern for their patio, and when summer ended his mother decided she could no longer keep it and planned to throw it away. Her son stepped in and saved it, asking her not to throw it out. He was living with a roommate at the time, also named Jeff and now a priest known as Father Jeff, who suggested naming the fern Jeff as well. The name stuck.
Over the 15 years since, the fern has grown larger and larger in the family's care and become a member of the household. Runyan, his wife Emily Rachelle and their five children in Denver carefully bring Jeff indoors every year before the first frost, and move it back outside in the spring to enjoy the sunshine, an annual moving ritual for the family.
This May, the family repotted Jeff into a larger pot. By this fall, Jeff had become so heavy that the family could no longer carry it alone, and they asked a neighbor for help to move the giant fern back inside to its place. Once indoors, Jeff occasionally brings a few stowaway bugs in with it and sheds a trail of leaves through the house, minor inconveniences the family gladly accepts until the fern returns outdoors in the spring.
Reflecting on the family tradition in the interview, Runyan said: "This is what happens when you put love into things, right?"
The family got a surprise this year. When they moved Jeff outside this past spring, they discovered a tiny baby fern growing in a pot next to it, a new plant Jeff had produced. The family named the new addition Jeff as well.
Source: ABC News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：名叫Jeff的巨型蕨类植物搬进屋内的画面，截自ABC新闻《早安美国》11月9日视频。/ The giant fern named Jeff after being moved indoors, in a frame from ABC News' Good Morning America video of November 9.
