Let's See Your Treeferns...

[realarch]

Here’s the one I think might be the type species. Must be 30’ tall, (9m), incredibly beautiful, and an enormous base. I’m surprised I’ve not found seedlings anywhere around the plant. 

It grew extremely fast when younger and I had no idea it would be as tall as the Iriartea planted adjacent to it. 

Tim 

[mwardlow]

Wow Tim, very impressive collection. That giant is awesome! Any idea of what is was supposed to be? Been looking for Cibotium menziesii spore for some time. If you ever collect some I would be very interested.

 

[realarch]

Michael, it was supposed to a New Caledonian tree fern, but not positive on a definite ID. I don’t remember the mother plant, maybe I didn’t look up. 

Tim

[Darold Petty]

OK, here are the three species I grow in my tiny garden in San Francisco.

Cyathea autralis, 21 feet of stem, (6.4m) 

Then C. medularis with 21 feet of stem (6.09m)

and Sadleria cyathoides 67 inches, (1.7m)

The third image shows my Ceroxlyon quindiuense in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Darold Petty]

I'm soory but these images are out of order.  I tried three times to post them in the correct  order.  The first one is  C. medularis, then Sadleria,  then C. medularis, and lastly C. australis. 

[mwardlow]

Awesome tree fern collection! How old is your Sadleria and has it always been solitary? Mine has multi trunks.

[tinman10101]

11 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

I'm soory but these images are out of order.  I tried three times to post them in the correct  order.  The first one is  C. medularis, then Sadleria,  then C. medularis, and lastly C. australis. 

amazing darold.  oh how nice it would be to grow tree ferns in open sky ... LOL.  the juxtaposition of your yard against the cityscape is beautiful.  thanks for sharing. 

[Darold Petty]

10 hours ago, mwardlow said:

Awesome tree fern collection! How old is your Sadleria and has it always been solitary? Mine has multi trunks.

Mine was originally two stems but one stem died.  The plant was a road side collection from Saddle Road, uphill from Hilo.  It was a small start,  planted in December, 2004.

Can anyone direct me to the form with reddish new fronds ??  Fern Factory had it,   but now lists it as 'out of stock'.

[Darold Petty]

31 minutes ago, tinman10101 said:

amazing darold.  oh how nice it would be to grow tree ferns in open sky ... LOL.  the juxtaposition of your yard against the cityscape is beautiful.  thanks for sharing. 

Tin,  the westward view is from the deck off our master bedroom suite on the third story of our home.  I built this myself in 1987-88 on top of the original building.  The ocean is about 1.2 miles away (2 km).   If you follow the rachis line of the Howea frond on the left out to its tip you can just barely see the ocean horizon through the Monterey cypress trees.   (Cupressus macrocarpa)

[tinman10101]

3 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

Tin,  the westward view is from the deck off our master bedroom suite on the third story of our home.  I built this myself in 1987-88 on top of the original building.  The ocean is about 1.2 miles away (2 km).   If you follow the rachis line of the Howea frond on the left out to its tip you can just barely see the ocean horizon through the Montery cypress trees.   (Cupressus macrocarpa)

wow ... i thought you climbed on your roof darold. haha.  i want to do the same off our second story.  hats off to you for building it yourself.  

yes ... i noticed the ocean horizon line.  it must be amazing to have morning coffee off this deck although it does look a bit chilly.  regardless, its a beautiful view.  

[mwardlow]

Mine is from Jim at the fern factory. It never gets really red, just on the ends in the spring. He thinks it is environmental not a different form. 

[Darold Petty]

mwardlow, thanks for posting !   (My plant is always just green.)

[mwardlow]

His website should be up and running soon. He had to have it updated. 

[FaceFlora]

This may sound weird but I signed up to this site just to reply to this two year old post. 
 

I have a cyathea arborea in San Francisco California. 
I can post photos or something once I figure the site out 

[edbrown_III]

heres some of my C. medullaris 

[mwardlow]

Both my C. medullaris are waking up after a long wet winter.

[tinman10101]

12 minutes ago, mwardlow said:

Both my C. medullaris are waking up after a long wet winter.

Absolutely stunning Michael! Could you disclose how old it is and at what size it was planted?

Cheers 

Tin

 

[mwardlow]

The large one shown is about 5 years from a small 5 gallon.

[Lyn96]

So many beauties on this thread. All of them.

[Rivera]

Triple stem Sphaeropteris (guessing) in the SF Botanical Garden.

[Rivera]

I believe these are reputed to be slow growers, but I have not found that to be the case in our cool maritime climate. Dicksonia antarctica, 3 years from a 5 gallon. The other most common choice to its left, Sphaeropteris cooperi. 

Hard to get a decent photo, but it's getting a girthy stem. 

Sphaeropteris is a double. Native Polystichum munitum and Blechnum spicant beneath.

Blechnum gibbum somewhere under there.

After a fruitless search for Cyathea howeana , I settled on a couple of tiny Sphaeropteris robusta (Cyathea robusta), which are now quickly filling up 1 gallon pots and will likely be planted out in the spring.

[realarch]

Man, I enjoy looking at this thread over and over. Such fantastic photos and information. 

My little Blechnum gibbum ferns have grown well and have not only bifurcated, but now have more pups coming off the small trunks. (I’m sure there is another name for ‘pups’, using a cycad term)

Tim

 

[tinman10101]

I recently visited Huntington botanical gardens again and always love to see the Angiopterus Evicta. Wondering if any of you folks in AU or Hawaii grow any?  

 

[realarch]

Tin, hey ya! We call this fern ‘Mules Foot’, and here in East Hawaii, they get scary big. I’ve seen them up the coast in the botanic garden and everything, the base, fronds, and spread, are gigantic. Way too big for a modest garden space. I have a photo of them somewhere. 

One came up in the open space behind our property and we’re keeping an eye out before it gets too large. I’ll snap a photo soon. Not something I’d want in my garden, at least here in Hawai’i.

Tim

[tinman10101]

3 minutes ago, realarch said:

Tin, hey ya! We call this fern ‘Mules Foot’, and here in East Hawaii, they get scary big. I’ve seen them up the coast in the botanic garden and everything, the base, fronds, and spread, are gigantic. Way too big for a modest garden space. I have a photo of them somewhere. 

One came up in the open space behind our property and we’re keeping an eye out before it gets too large. I’ll snap a photo soon. Not something I’d want in my garden, at least here in Hawai’i.

Tim

thanks for chiming in tim.  yeah i guess thats the allure for me of this species.  obviously, i have never seen a full grown one in person and can only imagine how enormous and overbearing it looks.

i would love to see a photo if you can find it or snap one.  i guess when you dont live in the tropics, you just long for all things tropics and do not realize that some things are more nuisance than novelty. 

 

 

[realarch]

Snapped a couple of photos this morning of Cimbotium glaucum in the garden. So lucky that this is a Hawaiian native. 

TimNice to be able to look down on one from the lanai above. 

[John2468]

On 3/28/2021 at 11:25 AM, aabell said:

Just hit the 2 year mark on this cooperi in the ground in FL. One of the box stores here sells them dirt cheap in 1gal, while you can go to a fancy garden center and pay $100+ for one smaller than mine is now. Anyway, it's adding trunk at a steady pace. The only issue I've had is that even though it's in a protected northeast corner, the sun still manages to hit it from directly overhead in the middle of the summer and the tender new leaves always get badly burned. Might try to avoid that this year with some extra irrigation.  

Any update on your Cyathea?

[aabell]

On 5/4/2025 at 11:22 PM, John2468 said:

Any update on your Cyathea?

It died summer of 2023 .... a delayed casualty of hurricane Ian. I lost the tree was giving it part day shade and the fronds all burned off. It regrew nicely over the winter, with more compact sun hardened leaves but then as summer set in the unprotected overhead sun seemed to be too much for it and it was constantly looking wilted. It finally died from some sort of crown rot, which I probably caused by hand watering near the crown - once I noticed the rot it was too late, all the fronds dropped one by one.

The good news is I planted another one nearby in 2021 that is now about the size of the first one when it died - about 3 feet of trunk. It is in mostly shade and has grown well without any special care, just a bit of hand watering (around the base, not the crown, I've learned) when it's dry.  I've heard from other growers in the area that have also had trouble with them once they reach a certain size, so my plan now is to always have a backup in the ground: even if the expected lifespan is short, they are cheap when small, fast growing, and highly underrated as shade plants in Florida. As an added bonus I was able to cut the lower portion of the trunk and the rootball of the dead one into chunks for use as orchid mounts and media. 

[Foggy Paul]

Our Sphaeropteris medullaris is just getting going after a year and a half from a small 1g from Fern Factory. It was growing like gangbusters in afternoon sun until this spring, which has been light on the usual fog and drizzle and heavy on sun and, lately, wind. The two new fronds are basically stalled. It’s clearly suffering, as are most of the plants, but I expect it to recover when conditions return to normal.  I’m also including a pic of our 7 year old Dicksonia antarctica, but those are a dime a dozen around here. PS, does anyone fertilize these and if so, do you use a palm specific formulation?

 

[Rivera]

18 hours ago, Foggy Paul said:

Our Sphaeropteris medullaris is just getting going after a year and a half from a small 1g from Fern Factory. It was growing like gangbusters in afternoon sun until this spring, which has been light on the usual fog and drizzle and heavy on sun and, lately, wind. The two new fronds are basically stalled. It’s clearly suffering, as are most of the plants, but I expect it to recover when conditions return to normal.  I’m also including a pic of our 7 year old Dicksonia antarctica, but those are a dime a dozen around here. PS, does anyone fertilize these and if so, do you use a palm specific formulation?

 

Our Sphaeropteris cooperi gets lots of sun this time of year, and it got roasted. 

Lots of new green growth now. More water is the ticket.

Heaps of organic material piled up, kelp meal, coffee grounds, langbeinite. The roots will grow right into it. 

D antarctica gets handfuls of kelp meal thrown into the crown along with the other stuff top dressed on the ground. Also lots of trimmings all around it. This fern is much more forgiving to the ground drying out as long as I spray the plant itself. Common though they may be, this species so well suited to SF, and a well-grown one is impressive once it gets a bit of trunk.