australian tree fern advice please

Goood eveing people, i am looking for a bit of advice please. I have rwo 6ft australian tree ferns in the ground and have been for about 2 years. However due to a re-scape i want to move them to another area of the garden. Would it be safe to do this and when would the best time to do it, are there ant helpfull tips you could advise if i was to go ahead and do this. Thanks in advance

 

Anytime!.. the roots of a tree fern are at the top of the trunk!... the bottom of the trunk just holds the thing up!

Which is why you should be watering the top of the trunk !,, weird.. but true.

Of course you have to remember that it's not hardy... so keep it protected from frost over the winter!

I'm not sure why they don't recommend that you can keep a tree fern over the winter by digging it up and puting in in a frost free shed, rather than all that palaver with lagging it with bracken and straw?

 

thanks for that it is good to know that i can move them without doing any major harm your information is muchly appreciated

 

Not sure that that is totally true Quercus
They told me that when I bought my first tree fern. I planted it in a pot and dug it up and moved it into the greenhouse every winter for the first few years until it became too big
It now stays in the ground all the time (it has been there for maybe 7 years now) and I think that it has most certainly developed roots out into the ground
Having said that, I DO feed it with a liquid fertiliser through the top of the plant and protect it a little with fallen leaves etc
Mind you ... I haven't dug it up in 7 years so maybe i am wrong

 

I got four tree ferns last year.

One 6ft
Two 3ft
One 5inches

They we all planted in the ground and as they cost a few pounds I thought I would protect them over winter. I stuffed straw down the crowns of the three bigger ones, tied up the fronds and but insulating sacks over the top of the fronds that also came down and covered the top foot of the trunk. All three of these survived and are growing happyly this year. But I was hoping that the tied up fronds would also survive. Unfortunatley they didn't but more grew back fine.

The small 5inch trunked fern had no protection what so ever and not only did it survive but so did all the fronds with only minor frost burn! So this year this one has two years worth of fronds on the plant and looks all the better for it. I can't explain why but this winter I'll think I'll just use a bit of straw on all of them and nothing else.

As for the roots on a tree fern. They definitely grow in the ground as well as through the trunk. I had to move the smallest one and it had hundreds of fiborous roots that it had produced in the previous year.

I have also noticed that a chunk of trunk that well off the side of one of the ferns when I first planted it last year has now fully rooted into the soil!! Although I don't think it will produce another fern?

One last point. THe 6ft one is grow in full sun and has grown fine with no notice scorch to the fronds which are about 2m long. I think this is because I keep the plants well watered and dont get the leaves wet.

 

Dicksonia Antartica grows a very good root system, It was Dermot Gavin who started the "plant it in concrete as they have no roots" rubbish. They need a lot of water at the top whilst the logs re-establish themselves but quickly re-grow a thick mat of roots. Other tree ferns dont re-root as well so avoid logs of D. Fibrosa and Cyatheas for example.

I would move them in the spring ideally, taking as large a root ball as possible. and then keep moist, watering the whole log so they dont dry out. They are best in a sheltered position out of too much sun and away from the prevailing wind.