The advice you received is right on! DON'T even think about cutting your ferns before they turn brown in the fall. Photosynthesis is taking place and feeding your crowns for next season's production. Reducing (or eliminating) this will severely damage your 'gus bed. The location of my bed doesn't permit sprawling or flopping either, so I erect an inexpensive and quickly installed fence using 6' fibreglass stakes and 1/8" nylon cord. I drive in the stakes at each corner of the 20' long bed, and put 2 more in the middle. I string the cord all the way around in two tiers...one at about 3' off the ground and the second one about 5' high, thus completely surrounding the bed with 2 strands of cord. Looking down upon it, it would look something like this: 0------------0------------0 0------------0------------0 This has worked well for 8 years for me, costs only a few bucks for material, and goes up very quickly. End of season storage is no problem either, and it allows a pretty stand of ferny greenery all summer long. Hope this gives you some ideas, even if you don't follow my example. Oops, sorry....the ends should show being "closed" too! I can't seem to get those to "stay-put" in my schematic. ~grin~ Hal ('gus lover in PA)

Stags are extreemly easy and they say the bannana peel was a myth but it's nice to keep things out of the landfill. So it will just mulch down. You really don't have to do much. Here in florida they pretty much get watered when it rains unless it is extreemly dry. My family and I have plants my mom has many the size of volkwagons. My dad liked to mount them on metal egg crates you fill the inside with lawn clipping leaves from the yard whatever and wire on pups to the outside. Then attaché heavy chains and hang on a very strong branch. I have had to use plastic crates and one day will need to upgrade the chain to heavier one and go across the bottom of the plant. They will get cold damage if it goes below freezing too long and it will get sun burned. If your fetilizing other things you can give it some even lawn fertilizer. Just throw it in the top. They are very cool.

rraciti, my ostrich ferns, planted (transplanted) this spring look the same as you describe. It's been a very wet spring and summer here, so I'm doubting lack of water is the problem - everything else in the garden, including the other moisture-loving ferns, is doing waaaaay better than usual (I tend towards blatant neglect when it comes to watering). My water theory would be completely off, of course, if ostrich ferns need considerably more water than I'm expecting. I'm very encouraged by arcy's theory that this may be a first-year transplant issue. I've got little patience for divas in the garden, and was thinking about offing the ferns next spring and planting something else there... looks like they have a reprieve.

Gary, not familiar with your request, but after much work trying to grow moss inside my terrariums, I hit upon the idea of spores. That did the trick. Took some time, but really did well. Collected them from fall moss dry up on wall and then blew them into backdrop (hypertufa) Really nice and apparently since it grew up in this environment didn't go through any shock as did moss I collected and tried to transplant. Guess I am saying, worth a try. Best Sherry