Welcome to GW. I believe you have ID'ed the problem, to much moisture and maybe, not enough light! First, let's be sure which Button Fern you have. Is it Pellaea rotundifolia? Potting mix is important also. Best results are obtained when using 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 peatmoss & 1/3 sand, gravel & charcoal(in equal amounts). Incorporate one tsp. of powdered (dolomitic) lime for each quart of combined potting mixture. Water only when soil feels dry to touch. Mist fronds occasionally, especially in winter, if you have a forced air heating system. Low or subdued light is sufficient, but place in a brightly lighted location during winter, when skies are cloudy or overcast. Best to move the pot outdoors in spring into a brightly lighted, shady location. Pellaea rotundifolia is surprisingly hardy and can survive temperatures as low as -10C (13,14F), equivalent to USDA Zone 8a/8b. If left indoors all year, scale will sometimes develop on the fronds. Basically, it's one of the easiest ferns to grow indoors, Well drained. slightly moist soil (neutral to slightly alkaline), watering habits and light levels are the keys. Good luck! Rb

My Dicksonia spp. leaves turned brown with the freeze, but I left them to help protect the tree, and eventually cut them off. Are there any grass or other roots invading the trunk? If so, carefully cut them off, and keep them off. These ferns are heavy feeders, but I do not use chemical fertilizers. I use worm castings, washed seaweed (from the beach), composted manure, or manure 'tea' (either the water the composted manure has been sitting in, or the manure itself), or 'kitchen and leaf' compost as a dressing, with mulch. After several years, the mulch breaks down, adding to the compost. Don't let the mulch or compost touch the 'bark'. My tree fern is back and looks healthy...hope your's will be, soon. I don't know if these ferns have any diseases here, but it pays to be on the lookout.

Gary, that's very interesting. Do let me know if plugged drainage holes is causing your issue. Now that I've been misting the leaves, I have had 2 fronds unroll properly. So it does seem to be a lack of moisture in the right spot. Nativesandveggies, thanks for the info. I think that might be the issue that maybe they can't uptake all their water through the soil. I do want to get back to not needing to hand water. I think I'll switch to watering by hand as if it were a small sprinkler on the top of the trunk and see if that works. Would be quite possible to tap into one of the existing sprinkler lines and run one of those flexible hoses to a sprinkler affixed to the trunk. Sorry to hear that yours all died! They are so gorgeous, really do want to get conditions right for it. But a plant that needs daily hand watering won't last long term, so I have to try to figure out a more automated way to care for it=)

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.