I agree that they are beautiful but also a challenge in the average home. I keep mine outside from about early April into the fall (depending on temperatures). This year it was outside well into December (and survived temperatures of about 28 F). Now I have it in a room crowed with palms and other ferns so it is quite humid. I know people will disagree with this--but I keep mine in a saucer which I try to keep filled with water. I disagree about letting them dry out. I have (repeatedly) found out the hard way that they have virtually NO tolerance for even remotely dry conditions. This time mine is surviving and growing!

We've got a couple Aspleniums at work that have trunks, though I'm not sure why them and not others: they all get more or less the same treatment. Could be something that just happens with age: some of our ferns have probably been in the greenhouse for a couple years or better. My co-worker has advised me not to bring in any tree ferns, regardless of the genus, on the grounds that they've never done well for long in the greenhouse. Which, granted, the greenhouse does get pretty hot sometimes, and maybe that's all it is, but the way she says it gives me the feeling that keeping a tree fern indoors is possible in the same way that living in a permanent base on Mars is possible: no laws of physics would have to be broken in order for it to happen, but one would basically have to have complete control of all aspects of the environment at all times to make it work. It's only thirdhand experience, granted, and not very specific at that, but the way she said it got me over any interest in owning a tree fern I might ever have had.

thanks for the info, everyone. I've been giving it lots of drinks. It is less hot today and looking less sickly. hoovb, thanks for posting the photos of your beautiful trees. They are huge, and I wasn't aware they get that big. I'm pretty annoyed that my landscape designer would put it there knowing this gets big. Here's a wider shot of the front. As you can see, the fern tree is right next to the garage, so we have to back our car out right next to it. My car already sort of brushes up against it when I back out. I'm in agreement with you all it needs moved. Any thoughts on what we should replace it with? Something that has some height? The spot gets mostly shade/dappled sun.

In my enthusiasum for the root stimulator, I negelected to comment on the most important part of your problem. Your plant is going to die. There is no real way for a mature tree fern to survive when it's root system has been damaged to the extent you suggest. The quantity of roots left cannot be expected to supply the amount of nourishment and water the foliage requires to survive let alone flourish. You don't say how the damage occured but obviously there was no preplanning involved. If the tree fern was being removed from a pot, it should have been carefully separated from the pot by sliding a large knife around the inside of the pot and the fern and soil ball wrapped carefully in burlap for transport. If it was being taken from the ground, there should have been a sharp edged shovel used to sever the roots between 6 inches and a foot from the trunk of the fern about 6 weeks before digging it up. (The larger the plant the larger the rootball.)This encourages new root growth close to the trunk. Using the root stimulator at this time is a good pretreatment and gives a better chance of survival. Lift the root ball carefully and lay it on burlap. Wrap it and the trunk firmly for transport. The less damage to the root ball the better.