I know it is hard to believe that southeast Alabama is the 8b zone, but I am in 8b also. The Champions Wood fern has done excellent here, the Autumn ferns do very well here also (that may be an indication we do have some similarity in zones). My Upside Down fern makes it through the winter fine, but it is just not nearly as vigorous, as the Autumn ferns and the Wood ferns. I have a couple of different Japanese ferns, they also make it though the winters here, but are not growing at a very rapid pace, just basically hanging in there, but this will be the third year for some of them so they have take off this year. The Christmas ferns do fair, but this will be there third and fourth year and they have not grown all that much (well maybe I forgot just how small they were to start with). But they are not very large, and they don't have the best shape to me for a fern.
So I would love to have a few more Wood ferns and more Autumn ferns, plus they do not spread nearly as fast as some of my (native?) local ferns do.
