Dear woofie, I think it may be a bit cold for them where you are! They and I have seen it done grown in sun! In Victorian times as these ferns have no underground roots: they were simply placed in a large pot and put in the flower beds. They buried the pot, not the top half, as a "dot plant" amongst the carpet bedding they loved to do. Carpet bedding is still prevalent in parks and most towns.
Then when the winter bedding was due to go in, the tree ferns, cordylines and palms etc. were taken out and put into cold greenhouses for the winter. Although evergreen they will drop there fronds if it is too cold. Most of the time they will regenerate new ones in the spring.
Please if you love these as I do; never buy them from the wild. The loggers in Australia cut down forests and these are left. They simply take them and then sell them for a vast sum.
On the internet you can buy the spores and get full instructions on how to grow them.
One of mine in the snow.
Regards from a most wet and cold England.
Neil.
