Cyathea australis protection (australis/cooperi IDs)

[Dave Brown]

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up

Anyone, have a real australis then

Notice the Tree Fern House is Mark Longley who emigrated to NZ last year. His love of Tree Ferns send him halfway round the world. Throught he went to Coronmel near Aukland..... must have moved

[MarkD]

John, yours looks, and is very very likely a cooperi indeed

[kentgardener]

Thanks Nurse.

So would an unheated greenhouse be OK? Or is it another to squeeze into the breakfast room?...

cheers

John

[MarkD]

We've got one of those small Madeiran cooperis too How low does it go inside your unheated greenhouse? With a small specimen it'll be safer to put it in your breakfast room. However we've overwintered a 1' trunked cooperi inside a garden outbuilding kept frost free That one is now planted out and will have it's first winter outdoors with protection.

Everyone elses on this thread looks like you have cooperis and not australis. It's not that surprising to have mislabelling on small, untrunked Cyatheas.

I don't know the finer differences between them but I feel the base of the fronds for those 'rough bumps' that are distinctive of Australis

Best to buy a well rooted, trunked Australis to be certain of it's identity, as even a small trunked one would clearly show the distinction, and much more likely to be fine left outside all the time

[Palmer]

John, my cooperi spent last winter in my unheated greenhouse and it went as low as –4.5 I am a little bit bemused because they say –4 is cooperi’s limit, but lets see how it does this winter

[simon]

What is the verdict on mine then? I took MarkD's advice about feeling the base of the stipes and I can definitely feel bumps.

with flash


without flash


wide shot

[Palmer]

Its cooperi Simon, I’m starting to feel confident at Id’ing them now

[Don]

Yes I'll go with Cooperii also. On the plus side it is probably one of the fastest growing tree ferns around. A few frosts will kill the fronds but it will need several clouts of -5C to kill off the growing point. Perhaps my comments refer more to bigger specimens so a bit of extra care might be prudent. I believe that, as with Dicksonia squarrosa, the trunk is best kept moist even in the depths of winter

[MarkD]

It's difficult to say just by looking at the photos and with a small specimen. I've been at work all day today and again tomorrow, and would have taken closeup shots of the base of new and old fronds of our australis for comparison. Maybe somebody else can take photos of theirs?

On first glance it does look likely to be a cooperi but don't lose hope just yet

[simon]

We complain about mislabelling in the garden centres and DIY shops but if the specialist nurseries can't even get it right, what hope have we got?

[Mark]

Here are mine if it helps

Australis

Cooperii with flash

Without flash

Australis has a darker fluff than cooperii.

[simon]

Yes, you can see the difference there. How do you protect your cooperi, Mark?

I will need to keep it alive if I am going to get a refund at the spring meet

[Palmer]

Something doesn’t look right the fronds on my Cooperi are 5ft long its bit of a monster really and it doesn’t have a stem yet, but Johns and Marks look much smaller and yet they have a stem, the scales on there’s look different too.

[Mark]

I kept it dry in the shed with a T shirt wrapped round it Which was the wrong thing to do apparently They are supposed to be kept moist ( trunk) at all times.
Don said I would be lucky if it survived and to go and soak the trunk. I never did as I thought the frost would still kill it in the shed.

So It stayed dry all winter really.


Thats why mine looks crappe. This year I will cut off all the fronds and squeeze it in the poly some how
I did have three ( all double headers) to start with but lost them over the last couple of winters.

I forgot to get one from UJ last time out. Myself and Don saw some nice ones in the top greenhouse for £20.

Edit; Tony mine are smallish fronds this year due to neglect really. They were throw outs from LP. Befor I left I asked if I could tidy them up as the chap who looked after the outside plants never seemed to bother.
They looked like this.

I started to repot them and sort them out then I left and they never got finished.

When I popped back a couple of months ago, I was told most of them got trashed on the new Antonio banderas Werewolf film

[Palmer]

Thanks Mark, that’s some moneys worth down the pot