Hardy Tropicals UK

call wrote:ive got a tiddler and its been up against a wall unwrapped all winter and its still in leaf

what lows did you get call must of been above -6c?. Both my 3ft Dicksonia antarctica's have got brown fronds, they got lows of -6c -8c -9c -12c according to the BBC and wunderground.

pdid wrote:I`m going to water mine today.

Gave all mine a good soak yesterday. They're very dry from the wind i think as they've had no protection

well i have unwrapped my Dicksonia antarctica.
Where i had pulled the fronds down over the trunk a couple of them had snapped so had turned brown. All the other fronds, although a little beat up are still currently green.
Ive pulled them up into the air now and loosely tied them and stuffed the fleece back into the crown.
When a frost is due i will just chuck a fleece bag or 2 over it.

A look inside the crown revealed a lovely set of knuckles tucked away, a quick rumage around and they are nice & green
It was still suprisingly moist in there.

Did you wrap it mumfie style ???

Great news delboy as you had some very cold temps! mine will be left open to the elements unless it goes sub zero again. watered mine the other day.

sanatic1234 wrote:

call wrote:ive got a tiddler and its been up against a wall unwrapped all winter and its still in leaf

what lows did you get call must of been above -6c?. Both my 3ft Dicksonia antarctica's have got brown fronds, they got lows of -6c -8c -9c -12c according to the BBC and wunderground.

-5 min

The Codfather wrote:Did you wrap it mumfie style ???

No mate, dont think so anyway lol.
I just used whatever was around.

I pulled the fronds down around the trunk, then used a bungee to keep them in place.
Stuffed the crown with fleece, then placed a fleece bag over the top.
A load of straw dumped on the top, with another fleece bag over that.
A wooly blanket around it all, tied tight.
A load of straw around the base of the trunk.
Some carpet wrapped around the trunk and a peice over the top.
Then i had a compost bin (open top & bottom) so placed that over the lot.
Then i covered everything with a big tarpaulin, forming a tent and put bricks around the edges.

It wasn't pretty lol. but i dont care as long as it has worked.
Fingers crossed the fact the knuckles are green is a good sign.

I have a 2 footer and a 5 footer on order, which i really should of held off from buying but i couldn't resist.

Next year i will be using duvets as we have just bought some new ones, so the old ones are now in the shed.

have not wrapped mine at all though winter,just fleese in the crowns and golf umbrella's over the top to stop frost radiation,snow,rain.

Tom2006 wrote: watered mine the other day.

I have unwrapped mine today tom and gave the trunks a good watering and a little water to the crowns also. They both sucked up the water in no time so promising so far. But the trunks were ever so dry, kind of made me think if wrapping the trunks is such a good idea! as they were moist before i put the protection on.

I wouldn't worry about the trunks being dry as its the central core and crown that must have moisture during the winter. As long as the root ball and and crown don't dry out for too long they will be fine.

not to sure if my two have rooted yet as i can not see any roots on the soil surface so it could be 50/50? if it has rooted then it will be getting moisture to the roots for definite at current as the soil is very wet from the snow. I am wondering whether to cut off the fronds my tree ferns? on one tree fern they are brown so no photosynthesis is going on there, but on the second tree fern although fronds are mainly 95% brown there is still little bits on some fronds that are green and the lower stems of the fronds that go inside the crown are also green, do i leave these on or still remove them? They don't look very attractive anyway.

They will take up water from the base as the base is roots. As for the fronds I would leave until the spring then cut off. For now they will provide some protection if it gets cold again.

Yeah i did think that tom but then thought the roots at the bottom of the trunk (not new ones) are dead so would would take the water up. didn't know they still took in the water. Yeah good thinking about the extra protection, i will leave them then till all risk of frosts have gone. I now only have the fleece inside the crowns. but big balls of fleece.

Took a pic of the crown today for my records, so thought i'd post it in here.

Mine this morning, There's knuckles in one of them,The other one is allways behind, they get watered every few weeks, there's fleece in the crown and there in fleece bags, this method has worked for the last 5 years or so, I was worried last year but they were fine, even kept there leave's



Everything in the greenhouse has survived and looking good