Hey Dirtslinger, Like you, I live in USDA hardiness zone 5 and I've had very good luck with C cooperi in my house during the winter and outdoors during the summer. However, I dote on the thing when it's indoors, as you'll see. I keep my house on the cool side during the wintertime (63F [17C] in the daytime, 55F [13C] in the nighttime). Humidity in my house is normally quite low, so I augment the humidity with a Sunpentown dual warm mist/cool mist humidifier (model SU-4010), placed directly beneath the fern. I only use it on the cool-mist setting. I use a slow-blowing fan to disperse the mist upwards. I normally maintain the relative humidity in the fern room between 55 and 65 percent. To accomplish that, the humidifier runs on an intermediate setting 24 hours a day. The water vapor is taken up by furniture, carpet, condensation on the windows etc, and also disperses into other areas of the house. Therefore, the reservoir needs to be replenished every twelve hours on the setting I have it running on. See the fern pics I have on flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/anderse79 The fern room doubles as my family room, so I spend a lot of time in it. At first I didnt care for the moist air, but I got used to it! The walls are plaster-covered lathe and I havenÂt had trouble with condensation or mold or anything like that. When I bring the fern inside, I stake the fronds and train them to grow upright; otherwise the fronds get in the way of foot traffic. The fern is in an east-facing window and gets bright light in the morning and afternoon. I always let the fernÂs pot stand in a centimeter or so of water, and the soil is therefore always wet. I almost never water from the top, and I mist the fronds whenever I think about it, once or twice a day. I move the fern outside into a sheltered, mostly shady location in April and bring it inside in mid- October, before the first frost. I fertilize with a weak fertilizer every watering during the warm months, when the plant is outside. The plant grows faster outside than it does inside, but still I would consider these plants troopers overall. Our summers here are humid and mild, with comfortable daytime temperatures in the high 70s F [~25C] and nighttime lows in the 60s F [~16C]. However we sometimes have hot spells and the temperature can soar to 90F [32C]!! The fern takes the high temperatures well, probably because it has acclimated to the warm weather by that time and the humidity is also high. As I said, this treefern specimen hasnÂt given me much trouble, and IÂm sure anyone living in the Great Lakes climate would have success with them if similar allowances were made for their care! It seems the key requirements for overwintering indoors are to never allow the plant to dry out and maintaining constant high humidity. As you know, these arenÂt unusual demands as far as ferns go! I don't know how much $ you want to sink into keeping your tree fern as a houseplant... As has been mentioned in other forums, any plant can be made to grow anywhere, the question is whether the benefit is worth with the cost. I think the benefit is worth the cost, because tree ferns make striking winter houseplants and guests never fail to be impressed by them! ItÂs up to every individual gardener to decide if a $22 treefern is worth a $75 humidifier, plus ~$3/month in electricity. If you are interested in obtaining a tree fern and you live locally, I bought mine some time ago from GilmoreÂs Greenhouse in Warren, Ohio. Briefly, this treefern specimen is more robust than I thought it would be, and should survive and grow slowly indoors in the wintertime if conditions are as indicated above. Good luck and post questions if any! P Anderson Cleveland, Ohio

If you have some shady area there where you could put some containers. Aloe might be nice to have near to hand in containers. Mint is something that is pretty happy growing just about anywhere but it should usually be contained or it tends to take over.

Hi Well my entire attitude has changed since I first posted this My canopy has matured after the hurricanes so primarily putting in epiphytes . Mostly orchid broms and ferns . Shadehouse in serious need of repair so I'm doing away with it and many of my pots 'plants too sensitive to survive outdoors. Mostly using bits and pieces of what I already have though I ran accross a couple that I'd never heard of let alone seen so had to but those lol I have a few gesneriads that tolerate the area so will keep those Ay one time I had over 500 pots!! Way too much work for an old man lol Still have around 200 but making progress and finally putting in some stone paths ,only took 30 years to get started Oh well a garden is always a work in progress?? Thanks for the suggestions!! gary

Hi I finally gave mine to a nursery to the south of me where it promptly died lol Was still under 3 feet after 10 years !! Had the browning leaves much like the last pix. Several nurseries in florida sell them be prepared for sticker shock lol Note the prices on susanbrians post?? The original poster protempfish said he got one in 08 maybe he'll chime in ?? Thanks for the great pix!! A friend sent me some pix from the Singapore gardens and in the background there were some saucer sized Vanda orchids towering over his head!! Would love to visit there particularly the bird gardens . Someone might go over to the "tropicals" forum and tell the person with the post Can I grow peppermint in Sarawak/" how to post pix . Claims to have some habitat pix as well as garden pix!!! Now there is palm paradise lol. Malaysia /New Guinea would be on my most like to see lol Okay maybe Madagascar , New Caledonia. Fiji,Solomons. Thanks again gary