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I've been reading up on the cultural requirements for some recently germinated seeds e.g Sabal mauritiformis and Gaussia maya. They apparently grow naturally in limestone soils. Anyone ever experimented with placing a piece of cuttlefish "bone" in the pot as a slow release form of calcium?.

I reckon a soak overnight would get rid of the salt. A lump of concrete in the ground yeah but not real good for a 3 inch tube and I'd imagine lime would leach out of a soiless potting mix quickly. That was the idea behind the cuttlefish, real slow release.

I think cycads are amazing plants, but in my climate they're hopelessly slow and limited, whereas an amazing palm can grow from 5g to 80 feet in my lifetime, at least.

Crozier on a tree fern in Papua New Guinea. Suspect it's a Cyathea sp. but am only guessing. Crozier on one of our locals, Blechnum orientale. Not usually considered a tree fern but I've seen them with trunks of 1.5 to 2 metres tall. Then they do look like tree ferns. Blechnum orientale again, crozier more advanced. Another crozier, but don't have an ID for it. Not a tree fern, growing in Papua New Guinea. Again, not a tree fern but I really liked this one, growing in Papua New Guinea. Believe it's a Sticherus species.

Hi Remko! Thanks - she is still alive :winkie: - and quite pretty I like it very much

Thank you for you great fotos! Mine is a small one, but I am proud - he had managed the first winter (indoors). Bought as Dicksonia antarctica - but experts opinion: Sphaeropteris cooperi or Cyathea tomentosissima!?

Dicksonia antarctica: these are high-altitude ones in the Snowy Mountains, NSW; 700-800 m elevation.

Cyathea leichhardtiana with Livistona australis in rainforest in the Illawarra district, NSW.

Cyathea australis- a 20-footer in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

Well, actually I was careful not to call the Hawaiian Tree Fern a weed. We do keep them, and appreciate them. If we have to remove one of them, we plant it someplace else. They're very easy to move, but I try to avoid that. What is a true weed, though, is the Australian Tree Fern. These are VERY fast growing (about ten times as fast as the Hawaiian one), and we made the mistake of planting a handful about 8 years ago. Now they're spreading all over the place, and removing them is a major project. This one is a volunteer plant, probably close to 20 ft/6 m. tall. It'll stay where it is!

I don't know much about ferns (=next to nothing!) but we have a bunch of native Hawaiian tree ferns all over the place here. "Hapu'u" in Hawaiian, I believe these are Cibotium menziesii.