There are many different species of tree fern that come from all sorts of different habitats. Do you have an ID for yours? Some tree ferns drop their fronds soon after they dry off. Some retain the dead fronds for quite a while. As long as there's plenty of good fronds in the crown of the plant it does no harm to cut off the ones that are dying and looking bad. As long as they have plenty of water some tree ferns can cope with full sun. But that's not all species. If you don't know the ID then stick with keeping it out of direct sunlight, or in filtered sun at most. Remember that indoors the air get's quite dry so the plant will appreciate a bit of misting.

Hi Don't confuse "Tree fern mounts with Long fibered Sphagnum moss The mounts are the trunks of tree ferns compressed and formed into various shapes usually for the purpose of growing epiphytes ,mostly orchids . I've used them for many years in the form of pots,sheets even in the shape of bunnies lol I grow 5 kinds of tree ferns but have had no luck getting orchids to grow on the living ferns .Interestingly they produce a fiber that repels epiphytes from attaching . Dead ,the orchid will happily grow right into it. They discourage the use of tree fern mounts because they have wiped out whole forests harvesting them for that purpose. If you want to mount orchids use cork bark works as well and is a renewable resource. though if growing indoors would think a poor choice ?? gary

Ian of Desert Northwest hasn't edited these pages for 20 years but he had put a lot of work into them way back when. https://www.angelfire.com/bc/eucalyptus/treeferns/ I think one reason there is less info about the is that the internet is still somewhat US-centric and other than the immediate coasts of CA and southern OR, they just aren't very easy to grow in a continental climate. (Hawaii notwithstanding of course) And they are somewhat uncommon even in CA...even the mildest climates of the CONUS is not quite the goldilocks climate they want. I can tell you Cycas revoluta are waayyyyy more common along the Gulf coast, Florida AND suburban CA & the SW than Tree ferns are in say, Mendocino California. I would even say, driving around greater LA area I saw more non-Cycas revoluta cycads like Macrozamia and Encephalartos, than tree ferns. Cycads are just far less fussy...here is a page about trying to grow tree ferns in South Florida: https://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/australian-tree-fern.html Even in CA one generally needs to grow the hardier sorts and those are agonizingly slow growing - with a plant that grows inches a year, you need to truly, truly plan ahead for whatever a winter season can throw at it! Because the moment get get even a little far away from the CA coast, other than a few select spots like the LA basin and the immediate Bay Area...record lows would wipe out the faster growing ones like Cyathea cooperi. For example Digging Dog nursery is only a couple miles from the central CA coast, but the owner told me it once hit 11F there, probably during the epic 1990 CA freeze. That would probably kill all but a mature Dicksonia antarctica. Compare with even the known worst "frost pocket" town of greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...Coldstream, has a record low of 21F! And a couple miles away in the hills are the native haunts of Dicksonia, that probably never recorded below 25F. Here is a pic I took of the valley where Coldstream lies. Of course those oceanic climate ferns tree have naturalized in Ireland and SW UK, so where they are happy, they are "easy to grow" LOL. We just really don't have areas with those sorts of climates, other than Hawaii, which is slightly different and can grow the truly tropical tree ferns.

Jane, that is such a nice looking orchid) Jim sent me one and I love it. James, I have discovered the same thing over the years. I have lost a few trying while at the same time most just don't perform well. But I see a difference finally after trying all these years. I am thrilled at whet they are doing now. It feels good knowing they are safely growing now especially now that I can see through the pots. I was tired of guessing. Dbarron, same here. I feel you when you describe what you are doing. I am happy you are finding out what works best too. I am going to get more tree fern before it's hard to come buy. I have actually placed mt phals on a heat mat and it is working great thus far. I also checked out that site and I like it. It's my next go to and they have lots of selections. Thanks.