Same to you, Xuan! ;) And thanks, Al, for the great soil mix! This morning, the overnight freeze had the fronds looking limp, but they sprang back by midday. Eventually, all of these fronds will yellow and die-back...just in time for next year's growth. I'm in the process of putting together one of these "barrels" with a Chainfern for my brother. Josh

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

There's no such thing as an 'Australian Tree Fern' - that's just a confusing marketing term. As you're a Brit, like me, you almost certainly have Dicksonia antarctica, a temperate rainforest species from Tasmania, also Victoria and New South Wales on the Australian mainland. Fortunately for us in the UK, it's almost completely hardy in all the mild lowland areas of England and Wales. So, assuming you're not living up a mountain in the Lake District, or on top of the Pennines, you should have left your tree fern outside all winter - where it could have stayed nice and damp! Not much will kill Dicksonia antarctica, but dessicating it is probably the worst thing you could do. For the future: scan the internet (the Palm Centre website has good Dicksnia care advice, do a Google search) and maybe the Cold Hardy Tree Ferns website. But for now: get it out into the garden immediately, sink it into a sheltered, semi-shaded planting hole filled with rich peaty general purpose compost, and spread mases of extra compost all around the surface area. Soak thoroughly with a hose. Saturate it. Soak the trunk every day throughout the summer - stop some time in autumn. No extra water in winter. That's it. All that matters is that you keep the trunk wet throughout our warm and dry months - but dry and and protected (a ball of straw or dry leaves in the crown) through the frosty winter period. I hope it's not too late to revive your tree fern. Chances are, you'll be okay if you plant it out and rehydrate it immediately - no indigenous Jurassic-era Australian plant would have survived to the 21st century unless it had a serious degree of drought tolerance in its genes. You've had a lucky escape - get the hose on that fern! Steve - Brighton, Sussex Coast, UK

Wallisadi, those are very impressive! The spot I have is under the canopy of a laurel oak, so should get nice dappled light. Yours looks like a Cyathea cooperi, thanks for the great info on how much cold protection it needs. I had been wondering about that. Morningglory, the antartica is supposed to be more cold tolerant than cooperi, but it sounded in my reading like they don't like hot climates. How are your friends' specimens do in summer? Gary, how fast do they grow? Do they grow fast when young then slow down? Or do they grow steadily regardless of age? I am considering the trade off of buying a bigger plant to start, or getting a small one. Thanks all for the great input!