Sphaeropteris Species, Australian Tree Fern, Giant Scaly Tree Fern

I got this plant just recently. I have always loved the looks of it and wanted one. I had no idea I would be able to find one at a local ...Read Moreplant place. I was so happy when I found it and it was cheper then I expected. It is maybe 3ft. or so. I still have it in the pot, but I am reading more about it and making sure we know how to take care of it and then we will plant it in the shade. So far it looks good and it isn't hard to water, I sort of mist it and pour water from the top of it, also I keep it in my peacock pen and the birds don't mess with it. They don't pick at the fronds. It is a great plant with a beautiful green color that I hope I can make grow big, because I want it to get a pretty trunk!

I list this as a negative only because I have one issue with it that isn't yet mentioned. I have two in the raised planter above my swim...Read Moreming pool and they have grown fast, I water the crown and they are stunning. Beautiful. However, in summer the spores (?) on the undersides of the fronds turn red/brown and fall into the pool by the thousands and I find them irritating to my skin. Some people aren't bothered by it and my skin is a little sensitive but when they dry onto your skin they start to irritate. I have an extra fine net to clean them out before swimming and they are so fine that they get through that and the filter and skimmer have no effect. The water surface is coated in them in the months when I really want to use the pool. I have seriously considered taking them out, netting them, etc. @ Palmbob: sounds like the dropping or dispersing of these spores is part of the propogation but what can I do?

I bought a baby Cyathea about two months ago, against my better judgment. I have always thought they were beautiful, but had never attemp...Read Moreted one myself. Growing this one indoors has proved very difficult. I have considered putting it outside on the patio, but I'm afraid the Oklahoma summer would kill it. On the other hand, trying to keep it properly moist in an air-conditioned apartment is not working very well either. I mist it several times daily and keep it on a dish of rocks with water below for evaporation.

Any suggestions? I am afraid it won't last much longer under my care. :(

I also have this in New Jersey, it is kept in the orchid greenhouse, but it is getting almost too big to keep, it is over 9 feet tall (in...Read Morecluding the container) with a large frond span of approx 6'. Hope I can overwinter it elsewhere to be moved outdoors over the summer. Absolutely beautiful fern! I stick small oncidium orchids (equitant orchids?) in the cut off fronds on the "trunk" of the fern.

I live in NJ just bought this plant for a large container. I'm going to try to overwinter it in an unheated attached garage. Any sucess s...Read Moretories? Just going to enjoy it now for the summer.

It's taken me a couple of times to get it right with the fern tree, and in fact had given up on them for a while until I found a scragly ...Read Morefern tree at home depot that was in the liquidation pile.
I planted the fern by the pond, building up a special section with a stone border, to ensure good drainage. The first year and a half the fern seem to be doing reasonably well, adjusting the watering amounts several times. After loosing my first fern tree from over watering I think. I over compensated on this one too much, and nearly lost this one by not watering enough. THEN, the most important care technique was revealed to me as PalmBob talked about in his comments. Watering the trunk daily, keeping it moist. This turned out to be the holy grail in terms of growth behavior I've seen. In spite of a rare hard freeze this spring, dammaging the bird of paradise that is adjacent to the fern tree, the fern tree itself did not flinch, wilt or otherwise display any distress. This is not to say that I don't pamper it when I know what the low temperatures are going to be, but this freeze took us all by surprise.
Watering the trunk, or keeping it moist daily resulted in almost immediant changes in the growth behavior. From last fall, to this summer the fern has doubled it's size several times! The fronds, or fiddles now stretch to 10 feet in the air, 2 1/2 feet wide. Taking quite a few pictures, I'm smiling this month looking through pictures of May, thinking then, just how awsome and big the fern was. It's twice the size now, and the trunk is now 1 1/2 feet tall, having started the year with no measurable trunk.

I've noticed that after the third year or so, the plant seems to toughen up a bit

It still amazes me how something so simple as keeping the trunk moist makes such a profound difference. I soak the trunk every day when it's in the 90's, at least a gallon of water or more. It is my opinion that this also facilitates the fiddles being able to clear the trunk area faster and with more ease. When the trunk is not damp, it tightens up the area where the fiddles grow out, slowing down the process. Of course this is just my experience on my one large fern tree.

I have been growing an Australian Tree fern in my side yard under some oak trees for about four years, I cover the fern in the winter on ...Read Morecool nights; here in Charleston our temps rarely fall below 23 degrees and the frost days are not many. It has had some frost damage over the years but has managed to grow to more then 14 feet and is continuing to get taller this year. I love my fern and plan to plant more in the near future.

I would like some helping information with my tree fern. as soon as the fronds start to uncurl and open the tip of the leaves are already...Read More brown. I am keeping it moist and watered from the top as well as bottom, and it is in the shade.What am i doing wrong?

bought 2 in august at lowes clearance rack. planted 1 in bed under native oaks & elms. Died back over winter., Thought was dead- but new ...Read Morefronds sprouting. Provided no care to it. got in high teens and 20's over winter a couple of times. Other plant left in plastic container in yard without any protection. Did nothing to it, but new fronds or sprouting also.

Great, beautiful plant. We had one as a kid, and I missed it when we moved. The courtyard apt. I lived at in Hollywood, CA had on in a ...Read Morehuge container and it was pretty happy as long as the landlord didn't overwater it. I just bought one for our new house and can't wait to figure out the perfect place for it.

This fern is often misidentified as "Cyathea australis".

Cyathea cooperi is native to eastern Australia (Queensland and Ne...Read Morew South Wales).

Cyathea are listed on CITES Appendix II.

In my area, this plant only gets about 8-12 ft tall or so because it is not truly winter hardy here and has to be protected any time it ...Read Moregets below 28F or so. I have two that I've been carrying in 20 gal containers for a couple of years, and the containers go in on the (sheltered) back patio during the winter and on the rare occasion or so it drops into the low 20's here, I'll put the containers into the garage for the night.

Worth the effort in my opinion. One goes on my covered front porch by the door (where it only gets the morning sun), and folks comment on it every year. Does need to be kept well watered (but don't overdo it to the point of root rot), and doesn't care for the direct all day sun once temps reach the 80's, 90's, 100's.

For those of you growing this as a container plant, I wanted to echo Palmbob and Angela's comments about watering. Every winter my frond...Read Mores scorched and shriveled from the lack of humidity and I had to remove all of them by the next summer. Last year, after reading Palmbob's comments, I started watering the trunk and it has been as happy as it is during our humid summers. The downside is that the tree is getting rather treelike now and by this autumn it may be too big to keep all the fronds anyway!
Thanks for the great tip, Bob!

This is a beautiful plant. The climate here is a bit too dry for it in Summer, and I was unaware for many years that water is needed at t...Read Morehe top, not bottom, of the plant. It has often lost its complete crown of fronds in mid-Summer and renewed it fully as soon as the Autumn rain arrived seeming non the worse for it. It is out of reach of the watering system, but the occasional bucket of water thrown into the crown during dry spells has been enough to prevent the loss of the fronds for the last few Summers. Otherwise this is a completely trouble free plant.

I live in the rainforest village of Paluma, Queensland ,Australia. Cyathea Cooperi attains heights in excess of 15 metres and grows in ab...Read Moreundance. The ferns are misted regularly by clouds rolling through the mountains and survives in direct sunlight in temperatures of 40C, but requires high humidity for most of the year, but will tolerate several months of drought conditions and is known to experience protracted cold periods of 2C night time temperatures. Propagation by spores is recomended as it is intolerant of felling and top pruning, unlike the dicksonia sp. The larger plants may be moved successfully if a large portion of the root ball is maintained. It has an extremely rapid growth if conditions are maintained and fronds regularly achieve 2 to 3 metre lengths. easy to grow if conditions are maintained

Living in S. Calif. we get a lot of sun. In order to grow these beautiful trees we planted them close to the house, next to windows.
...Read More/> 6 months and 3 specialists later, the terribly painful and blistering rash I had all over my limbs and neck was found to come from the fuzzy stuff that would blow off the tree, through the screen on the window and onto the couch just on the inside of the window where I lie to watch TV every evening.
It took a lot of sluthing and it was my son who asked me what all the barely visable, brown fuzzy stuff was on the couch when he was helping me move the couch so that we could fit our Christmas Tree in front of that window.

Now, when working on my impatiens or hostas under the Australian Fern I wear long sleeves, sweats, high socks and shoes and latex gloves.

My husband asks why we can't just move the trees and I say no way! Wearing a little extra protection to work around my beautiful Australian Ferns is worth it to me.

I have an uplight under each tree. At night the light highlights the beautiful Tree and casts beautiful shadows of the fronds onto the outside walls of the house.
I'm not about to let a little allergic rash get in the way of that beautiful sight.

There is an A. cooperi growing at the El Camino College campus, (Torrance, Ca.) that is over 30 feet tall. It is located within an exteri...Read Moreor stairwell that protects it from the wind and one must walk up to the 3rd floor to view the massive 8' fronds. A beautiful and unique plant.

In my country (Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean near Mauritius, but it is a french "département") there's two endemic varieties of th...Read Moreis plant : Cyathea glauca and Cythea excelsa. They are very rare and live high on the forest. There's another variety which is found in the islands of the Indian Ocean, for instance Madagascar, it is Cyathea borbonica. I've been visiting this site for a long time, it's very useful.

Grows approximately 20 ft tall & 15 ft wide if planted in ground. BEAUTIFUL.

THere are several 'forms' of this fern on the market. The form most commonly found in nature in Australia is actually the harder form to...Read More find, but is often referred to as Cyathea 'brentwoodi'. It is a much faster and more robust fern than that sold in most nurseries. This plant loves full sun in its native habitat, but here in So Cal, it prefers shade or morning sun. The stem is actually made of rootlets, so it really doesn't have a true stem. To keep this tree looking nice, it is good to keep the root(stem) moist, so to make it look best, a drip system on it, preferably from the crown, works well. Also, spraying the trunk daily, especially in hot weather, helps. Otherwise the leaves tend to brown and die in the heat/sun. It is a great shade plant for other tropicals, too. IT is propogated by germinating the spores on the back of the leaves (not that easy, believe me!).

This is a very easy fern to grow, but it does get huge, so give it a lot room.