Tree Fern Cyathea cooperi (Alsophila)

The trunk is the giveaway. Cyathea cooperi carries neat oval scars where old fronds have fallen away, patterned up a slim trunk, and the fronds themselves are pale green, finely divided and held in a wide shuttlecock, with new croziers unfurling under a coat of golden brown scales. It comes from subtropical rainforest along the east coast. In gardens it is the standard choice for a canopy layer over shaded courtyards, pool surrounds and fern glades, where the fronds are read from underneath rather than from above.

Oval frond scars and golden croziers

Warm, sheltered and damp is the summary. It wants steady moisture through summer, watered into the crown and down the trunk rather than only onto the soil, in ground that is rich with organic matter and mulched deeply. Protect it from hot dry wind, which shreds and browns the fine pinnae faster than anything else will. Frost is where this one parts company with the hardier tree ferns: in a cold garden the fronds burn off, and repeated hits kill the crown, so it belongs in coastal and subtropical positions or in a frost free courtyard microclimate. There is a second cost worth knowing about before you plant. It seeds itself freely from spore in humid climates, turning up in gutters, in pots, in the mulch of neighbouring beds and in bushland behind the fence. If you back onto a reserve, take that seriously and pull volunteers out while they are small. Under an eave or a pergola the crown picks up some protection from radiant frost, which is often enough in a marginal district, and a deep mulch layer over the root zone carries it through hot spells.

Warm garden softness against cold garden grit

Cyathea australis is the alternative and the split is climate. Australis is rougher in texture, darker in the trunk and much better in cold and frost, so it is the one for tablelands and southern gardens; cooperi is softer, paler, better suited to warm humid conditions, and available here in the widest run of sizes in this batch, from small pots through to large specimens. If the garden is genuinely tropical and you want a fine textured palm under canopy instead of a fern, Schippia concolor plays a similar role at a smaller scale. Both ferns are handled the same way once they are in the ground, so the decision really comes down to your coldest winter nights. Others in the group sit under ferns.

Frond clean-up through the year

Frond removal is the whole job. Take spent fronds off close to the trunk once they have gone fully brown, at any time of year in a warm climate, and wear gloves and long sleeves, because the scales on the stalk bases irritate skin badly. Do not cut into the trunk itself, and never damage the crown. Feed through the warm months with dilute liquid fertiliser or well rotted organic matter spread over the root zone, keeping it out of the crown, and refresh the mulch each spring. Volunteer seedlings in beds, pots and gutters come out easily while they are young, so fold that into the same round of work.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 13 sizes, from 125mm up to 300L, priced from $16.95 to $3969.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.