Hello I am looking for one of these with trunk on it. Maybe 3 or 4 feet of trunk would be nice. You can email me at imcuban2@hotmail.com if you have one or if you know where I can get one I would appreciate the information!!! Thanx

A spot of bother is a lot like being in a pickle, but not quite as bad as being up a creek with no paddle. I grow a few kinds of tree ferns here in the redwoods of California, and one of my Dicksonias looked like it had died after it spent too long shaded under a native spice bush without enough water. The older fronds were still alive, so I was hoping for the best. HoustonPat (a forum member here) suggested that it might come back to life if I fed and watered it to push out new growth. I tried that after I pruned the spice bush that was shading it. The crown wasn't visible and checking for new croziers as bluecable suggested I couldn't feel anything at all in the deep cup that was where the crown should have been. I've had trouble with granular fertilizer in the past, so now I use a soluable fertilizer, like miracle-gro, at half the recommended strength. It worked, along with the late season rain we had here. Another thing to remember is that D. antarctica has roots growing through the trunk from the crown on down to the soil, so I usually feed the trunk, too. My biggest D. antarctica sometimes has white roots covering the trunk when the weather is not too cold during our long rainy winters in the shade of the redwoods. I recommend leaving the old fronds on the plant if there is any green on them, as they feed the plant while the new fronds start to grow, even though they may look ragged. Once the new fronds are opened up and hardened off they can be removed, but it's not necessary, and as they get taller I want to leave a thatch of dead fronds partly for the natural look, and partly because I assume they would help hold in moisture so the trunk will dry out more slowly in our very dry summer conditions. Since it's been a few months since the original post, I hope icklebear can give us an update on his Dicksonia. TheFreddo

Hello, Dicksonia antarctica need to be minimum 5 years old or more to produce spores, I think. My one is 5 years old now and don't have spores to this time. In the nursery I work are plants with 10 years and they also procuce no spores. May be potted plants need much longer to produce viable spores. Cyathea produce spores much faster. I see plants only 4 years old with spores on it. regard Athyriana Here is a link that might be useful: fern-homepage

Very excited, just bought a Dicksonia antarctica too! I asked at the nursery if they had any in stock. The main owner wasn't in and so I described what they looked like to the assistant and she responded with a little excitement too as she guided me towards their 'private' poly tunnel where they keep plants that aren't at their 'showy best'. I was trying not to show too much glee at seeing the very wide stump in the large pot in front of me and so commented negatively on the few tatty fronds that remained on the plant. The assistant rang the owner and he asked for 30 pounds. I genuinely only had 20 pounds in my wallet as I wasn't intending to buy anything until I had fixed the garden first. They accepted and I brought my new baby home! I hadn't given it too much of an examination in the nursery aside from checking for new growth (of which there were new fronds just about to make a break for daylight), but as soon as I got it home I realised why the plant looked so wide... It was two!!! The larger trunk is around a foot tall and the smaller trunk is around 8 inches. BARGAIN ALERT!! The largest remaining frond is easily 30-36" long. A good watering of the crown washed away some of the brown fur and fully revealed very prominent new growth. Upon my discovery I did wonder if to separate the two plants but I have now just about decided to keep them together to form a more bushy tree. When I am ready to plant them in the garden I may take a look at the roots to see just how entwined they are and let that be the decider. Any comments on this? As you may be able to see from the photos, the area where they are going to be planted does look quite flooded after heavy rain. This soil has not been forked for many years and it is hoped that doing so (and raising the earth to a slight mound will help drainage sufficiently. Is there anything else I can do to assist drainage or do you think the ferns will be okay? Here is a link that might be useful: Pics of my tree fern(s)!