New Zealand Tree Ferns
New Zealand Tree Ferns will be arriving at the nursery next spring (2008). Gone are the days when suppliers could cut a container load of tree ferns, load up and have them on the water within days. Because of new DEFRA (formerly MAFF) legislation the harvested tree ferns have to be grown on in a nursery for 6 months to ensure they are free from pests and diseases. The other advantage of this is that the ferns will be rooted. Although bare rooted trunks have never been a problem with the Australian tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica), past experience has taught us that New Zealand ferns resent root disturbance. The upshot of this is we will have a quantity of rooted NZ Tree Ferns in spring, including Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea dealbata, Cyathea smithii, Dicksonia fibrosa, Dicksonia squarrosa – from potters to 6 footers. We will be accepting reservations so email us if you wish to put your name on one in advance.
We have Cyathea medullaris and dealbata in 3 litre pots at the nursery – available now. Please refer to website.

Dicksonia antarctica
A container of Australian tree ferns should be arriving about the same time!

Weather
For anyone obsessed with weather forecasts (and who isn’t this summer?) go to http://www.metcheck.com/. It’s a really useful, informative and sometimes humorous website. Their daily forecasts are spot on and their long-term forecasts (up to 14 days) have been excellent although rather bleak. We’re addicted and regard ourselves somewhat as experts on the Jet Stream, Azores et al.