What do you need to know? Survival, sun/shade, outgrowing the pot...?

Thank you for answering - I have two dixie ferns that are struggling in our dry shade. The tree roots are too competitive, but that's where the shade is.

I would like to rescue them and put them in a big pot. This pot does not have a hole in it, it is a glazed interior, vietnamese pottery about 35 gallons. The opening is 28" round. I'm inquiring about how quickly it might try to strangle itself in 28". I had thought they travelled underground, although mine have not grown at all.

It doesn't rain enough here to cause a bog situation in the pot.

Well, first let's clarify that the fern in question is Dryopteris x australis, which grows very upright to about 5 feet tall (though maybe not when struggling in dry shade!). If that's right, I happen to have just bought that one, and it was doing its best to climb out of the 1 gallon pot it was in - it crawls across the surface, having sort of a creeping, spreading root/stem mass from which it grows, not really spreading underground (like, say, an ostrich fern). I haven't grown it for long so I can't say how far it will spread in how much time, but I'm guessing you'll be able to see quite clearly when it is getting to be a problem so you won't be caught off guard by a firmly wedged-in root mass. And even if that does happen (one does get distracted, sometimes for years at a time!) you can actually take a pruning saw and cut the surface mass apart and taking out pieces.

Regarding shade, by the way, I think this fern will take some sun as long as it has some moisture. At least I hope it will, because that's where I have it planted :-)

Thanks Karin - that was something I was concerned about, but I can handle a small saw.

I was also concerned about the lack of drainage - we don't get all that much rain, and I hand water pots daily. But I think I'm just going to locate another pot with a drain hole.
I'm not getting anyone that likes the no-drain idea, in any of my posts or when questioning in person.

Thx

My guess too is that you'll have a healthier ecosystem in there if you have drainage and air to the roots, although you lose some of the water to drainage. I actually do a lot of container gardening and do all hand-watering too, and if you keep the soil surface a little concave (lower in the middle), then the water tends to get absorbed rather than running down the sides and out the bottom. You can actually drill holes in ceramic pots, apparently, with the right drill bit (and perhaps a fairly high tolerance for disaster!). But having said all that, a fairly loose-packed, humus rich soil in a non-draining pot in your dry area just might work (as opposed to in my rainforest climate). There's not that much to loose by trying, really; you've got the pot and the plant already, and you've got two of the plants... you could leave one in the ground somewhere for back-up.

Good idea - If I can't locate a big pot with a hole around here, I'll try it.

My intent when I picked out the pot was to put a Virginia Sweetspire in it. I'm cutting back on my gardening and picking out things I really like to put in pots.