Treeferns Awaking

 

With spring feeling like it has arrived here in the UK the garden is breaking its winter slumber. Admittedly its a little delayed on a typical year, but at least its finally here!

 

My favourite new growth is nearly always are the tree ferns, with Dicksonia antarctica being the most showy at the moment. The other less hardy tree ferns are waking, but are still in the greenhouse, although they really should come out soon.

 



 

Dicksonia antarctica

 

As regular readers will know we have a tree fern patch in the jungle area of the garden, and this area is bursting with the new life. Currently the area is easy to navigate as we have tidied up and removed last years fronds, the snow and frosts had browned them off this year. With the fronds removed we can actually walk down the pathways, which will soon be tricky when the crosiers are fully extended. Still for now it makes enjoying the new knuckles an easy and rewarding task!

Gaz

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How Not to Treat a Tree Fern

Poor tree fern, this one has had a tough life so far....

First it got harvested from its habitat in Australia then exported all the way here. Then just imagine what sort of handling it has received from the shipping container and all throughout its stay in the nursery where it came from (it won't be delicate that's for sure).

Then it had it's own saga on it's way to where it is now.

This was a replacement for one of the tree ferns we bought as a batch last spring that didn't send out any growth last summer. We had to wait till autumn for their new batch of import to arrive to get a replacement one. It's delivery didn't go exactly smoothly.

My understanding was that they will collect the old one as they delivery the new one. What they arranged instead was that the new one will be delivered first then a separate courier will collect the old.

So we had the old one wrapped up ready for collection and positioned by the side of the house.

The new tree fern, the one on the photo was delivered as expected but the delivery man put it upside down with the crown on the ground with it's heavy weight resting on it. Big no-no but fortunately it didn't stay that long before I had him turn it right side up.

As it was so heavy and I was on my own I left it at the front of the house, to wait for Gaz's arrival so we can shift it at the back together. I have very little worries about leaving anything at the front as our street is very quiet and nothing gets stolen (touch wood). So I went back into the garden and carried on with my usual business. Half an hour later I went to the front to put things in the rubbish bin when I saw that the tree fern was missing!!!

Upset, I knocked on our neighbours to check if they have seen anything and they said no. A couple of guys doing gas work a few houses away said they weren't paying attention. So much for 'nothing gets stolen'. Then I noticed the old tree fern was still there. Could it be??

Then I rang the nursery and explained what had happened. They then checked their couriers and confirmed what I suspected later on: the separate courier collected the new tree fern instead of the old one!! They didn't even bother the consignment papers still attached on the newly delivered tree fern.

An hour later the courier that collected the new tree fern came back to return it and swap for the real old one. And guess what, the tree fern was upside down on the van!! Too tired to argue I just let him do his thing and making sure he puts it down the right way up, trying not to get upset at the sight of crushed new fronds about to unfurl and the thought that the crown was mashed and damaged. I'm just glad that it has finally arrived.

We later shifted it on to the side passage and hoped to get it planted over the weekend. The planting didn't happen and it has stayed there since, unplanted and sat on a concrete slab.

As for the crown, the crushed fronds eventually fell off and fortunately it has sent out more fronds since indicating that the crown was fine despite being weighed on by it's own heavy trunk. Though unplanted, we had at least kept it hydrated as much as we could. And it seemed sturdy and secure standing where it was initially.

Then on Thursday, with the storms and gails arriving I found it blown over and lying on its side in the evening. That must have been a heavy fall. Thankfully it didn't snap another plant nearby but how many times must a tree fern fall? Our fault.

And I was about to take a photo of it lying down but by the time I was about to Gaz has propped it up again. Hopefully the bag of slate will make it less likely to fall again.

It hasn't received a good treatment so far but we promise to get it planted in the spring and give it lots of TLC. But for now talk about how not to treat a tree fern!

But how should you treat a tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica)? In a gist:

The crown is the most sensitive part, don't weight it down or stand upside down for a start!

Keep the crown and the rest of the trunk well hydrated and never let dry out.

Protect the crown with a bit of mulch or fleece during the winter (more when it gets colder and prolonged cold spells).

Plant out as soon as possible.  If bare rooted or an unrooted trunk bury a decent length (half a foot to a foot or even more depending on the size) so it reroots and reestablishes much quicker.

Hopefully it will forgive us and reestablish quickly as soon as it gets planted, cross fingers!

Mark :-)

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Hairy Knuckles Awakening

Remember those tree ferns we bought a few weeks ago? Well the ones we were waiting for have arrived and been planted out shortly after (more on about this on a later post).

Most of our existing tree ferns have already done their spring flush but the new arrivals are understandably lagging behind.

Well they fast catching up now and they are quite a sight to behold. Fresh, dark, hairy knuckles from down under are unfurling...

Exciting times ahead for when these hairy ones have finished unfurling then our jungle area will look very lush again.

Mark :-)

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From Australia With Love

And here they are, from Australia with love!

Tree ferns from Down Under! Seagrave Nurseries

Finally more tree ferns, Dicksonia antarctica have arrived to satisfy the ever increasing and persistent demand for them here in the UK.

There seemed to be a shortage of them this spring, because of some rule changes that bought about delays in their arrival. I haven't really explored yet what these rule changes were that caused the delays but it seemed to be about the way they are shipped here. Along the lines of less frequent shipment but in bigger batches. I'm not sure if this will cause any long term shortage as such as in theory it should even out but with the delay it certainly felt like it.

Several sizes were available, in this photo you'll see sizes from two to six feet

Eight feet ones

Especially as we're extra conscious about the supply this spring as we're after several as part of the replanting and makeover of our jungle area was affected by fire last year. We were hoping to get tree ferns last Easter Bank holiday as usually by that time most exotic nurseries here have them already in stock. Very few had any then. And we continued ringing nurseries around but they had very little to nothing in stock. It didn't help that we were after particular sizes either.

Pre-ordered tree ferns ready for delivery

All of them did mention about shipping problems, that there were delays. Nothing to do then but wait.

And finally they have arrived. First ones to receive their order was the Palm Centre. A week or so later was Seagrave Nursery. Actually their shipment only arrived yesterday and we paid them a visit today.

The sight of all those trunked Dicksonia antarctica stacked and grouped together were mesmerizing! We were both like children in a sweet shop, albeit the sweets were mostly just one kind but came in different sizes.

Gaz making a choice and checking out the height

Decisions, decisions!

Wrapped up and ready to go home with us

We made our choices and arranged for delivery. Two did come home with us and are currently soaking in water to hydrate them and get them primed for planting.

Thoroughly hosed with the base in a bag full of water

Another one left to soak for several hours

Where the tree ferns will go

Tree ferns will be the main planting and provide structure to the jungle area/fernery and with their arrival we can finally move on and truly sort out this section. It will be heavy work but I'm excited and can't wait to get them planted!

Mark :-)

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Favourite Plant of the Week - Dicksonia antarctica

We haven't had hard frosts and low temperatures yet to brown off the fronds so they're still looking very lush and green when I saw them last weekend. Seeing them so verdant still has made them our favourite plant for this week.

Dicksonia antarctica

Seeing tree ferns in leaf never fails to bring a smile on our faces. However what bought an extra smile was remembering that, yes, they sailed through fire damage too! Defoliated and trunk charred to nothing but chunky poles, lo and behold they flushed again a few weeks later and carried on like nothing happened.

They are a lot tougher than you think! Well a few Aussies did say so as well to us before fresh from the event and they were right.

So how do we usually protect them in the winter? With a ball of frost fleece or landscape fabric on to their crown with a scarf too of the same materials wrapped around their 'necks' for good measure.

This one was damaged by winter 2010/11 and has since only put out very short fronds. When it got scorched we thought that was then end of this as this tree fern was weak already. But it wasn't and it flushed again. 

So far this winter, no need to protect them yet. Hopefully we won't have to....

We join Loree of Danger Garden for her favourite plant of the week meme!

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