cutting in front of here is a dick Sony Antarctica or a Tasmanian tree for fern it's a February 15th 2014 and I planted this specimen in my garden in April 1994 so it's coming up 20 years now these are evergreen in our climate here on salt spring island we're on the where I am gardening here it's a high end of zone 8b I'm just across the street from the Pacific Ocean so winters are mild and wet and summers are warm and dry so this does need water in the summer months I have two other ones on the other side of the house in the front garden that don't get a lot of Sun this one actually gets full-on hot Sun in the summer and it does get very warm in this alcove here for any of those that want to try this this plant if you can get a hold of them in your local nursery I do advise it because they're very interesting a conversation piece I have this one growing in deep rich kind of PD soil and each year this is this is last year's fronds and you can see they're going to be starting to brown off soon and then I cut them all off and sends out about 24 new ones each spring so in March it starts to unfurl giant fiddleheads and I don't think you can eat them people out of uni because things I think it'd be an expensive meal these plants are about fifteen twenty to twenty dollars a trunk inch and they are slow growing in the trunk this one here is about six feet of trunk winter preparation and protection is actually pretty simple the coolest temperature I've had here at this location was in December of 2013 for this winter at minus 4.9 degrees Celsius so that equals 23 point one degrees Fahrenheit and then we had another cold blast just the beginning of February like I say it's February 15th now after Valentine's Day and I had minus four point six degrees Celsius was actually a little bit colder in December but not cold enough to bother the Tasmanian tree fern these fronds here will Brown out at about minus six point five degrees Celsius or slightly lower so about 20 degrees Fahrenheit but that's okay Long's about the center crown protected where the closures emerge right there that's the most tender part of the fern I quit burlap and I put a little bit of bubble wrap on top of that this time I even cheated a bit and I put some bubble wrap around the trunk for this for the cold snap and I probably didn't need it but I had it so I just threw it around there so anyway as you can see it's looking pretty good and in about another month I will chop off all of these fronds and the new ones like I say we'll come out and replace these because these tend to droop down and kind of get in my way when I get around my house understory plants in here I have passion Passa flora this passion vine in the back and I have lots of Trekkie karpas 4 to 9 of aspidistra laisure which is cast iron plant and a Commodore II erratic callus so anyway I will I will grab the camera and I'll show you the smaller ones at the front of the house and eventually they will look like these I planted the ones in the front about three years ago like I say this one here it's been 20 years here growing on salt screen Island British Columbia Canada there are other ones in private gardens I know a guy that has actually a larger one than this one in this garden looks actually very nice and there's actually a nursery just down the road for me here Fraser stimple farms and they have a lot of tree ferns in stock to choose from dick Sonia fibrosis dick Sonia's gross I don't know if they might have Scythia Australis and dick Sonia Antarctica which this one is dicks own Antarctica this is the Tasmanian tree fern the more common of the hardy tree ferns and as you can see it's a pretty happy here in my zone 8b garden it's in a dry winter but I haven't had to water it because there's not much evaporation at this time of year because we're not the heat units but pretty much every day in the summer I'm giving this guy a drink through the top of the crown that's the best way to water them because the whole root system basically is the trunk that does consist of the root system and down in the ground of course but the trunk I believe is made up of roots so you water it through the top and it soaks it up like a sponge it is a beautiful very exotic prehistoric plant that will live a long time and grow a very large trunk like a palm tree would have a crown like a fern so just think these things are around when the dinosaurs around that cool just think of cycads sort of a prehistoric planet and people usually come into my garden and they're looking at all the palms and exotics and they come here to this alcove oh my god what is that so most people want to try growing this plant in their garden those are just a few trips tips of how to get it through a winter here on the southwest coast of British Columbia Canada so we'll grab this camera here give you a little look at that tree fern Tasmanian tree fern and then we'll go up here and we'll show you the smaller ones what I've done to them I've just stepped back you mulch the crown in some pine needles and leaves by the way folks there's some Myrtle true Myrtle yeah this garden looks the same 365 days of the year I like southern hemisphere plants which do well here lots of plants from Asia so here's one here little or one Tasmanian tree fern and here's another one here Tasmanian tree fern very happy here consult spring on British Columbia Canada we're at 48 degrees north latitude so and winters here like I say our mild and wet it is the mildest growing area in Canada here on the southwest coast