Dumpster diving for plants

You know what they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.  I can't believe someone would throw away a perfectly good tree like this! Here's what we did to bring this specimen back to life along with some general fern care tips.

Here's what we found

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Here's what we found, a 4 ft Australian tree fern in poor condition.  Most likely this plant was left out in the full sun without consistent watering.  Our first step was to move it into a mostly shady area which is where ferns grow best.  Luckily this tree was grown in a light well draining soil already so no amendments were needed.

Remove Dead Branches

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Not only are dead branches unsightly, they actually suck nutrients out from the plant itself.  Removing dead branches on a regular basis is going to keep the leaves lush and green. This is best to do in the fall.

New Growth

Identify dead branches

Remove dead branches

Clean up around the base

Nice and tidy

2 months later

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Here's how it's doing today!

New growth on ferns is one of the coolest things ever.  It looks like little balled up caterpillars at the end of the branches.  Ferns are typically slow growing but it's worth the wait.  They will continue growing new leaves as long as you keep the soil consistently moist.  If you have a difficult time with this then a trick is to put a couple inches of much at the base of the plant (i.e. bark, stray or rocks etc...).  Luckily there aren't many diseases to which ferns are susceptible, just keep an eye our for possible snails.

Here's a video we took when we recently pruned this fern