I've never had trouble transplanting ferns. They move like any other plant, and much easier than some. Dividing them is a pain, and seems to require some sort of sharp blade.

i only have one fern.. i just call it a fiddle head fern ... [yeah..... they probably all are.. i never got a name.. nor a pic.. and let me say.. one type... because i have hundreds of them ...]

i stole it from mother nature.. many a decade ago .. by ripping it out of her soul ... and dragging it many miles home.. in the dead of summer ...and planted it and forgot about it for weeks ...

3 houses later... i still have it.. couldnt kill it with a 3 ton truck [??? i am trying to remember who is living in a lorry???]

and i seem to think.. somewhere over the decades... digging some up and hacking them apart with a machete ... seems to me.. they even multiply with benign neglect ... by seed/spore or whatever ferns do in the dark ....

as i said.. i have no clue what kind ... but i dont know why yours would not be the same ...

the only thing that seems to knock them back.. is good soil.. too much water ... and too much fert.. in other words.. the only way to kill them.. is to love them to death ...

crikey if you can move a 50 year old peony.. or for that fact any.. any.. plant.. i dont know why you would worry about a fern ..

ken

ps: ok.. you all tell me this is some foo foo fern that resents its owner... if so.. i will defer ... though i wont believe it... lol

righty-o then - out with the spade (especially since it has been raining for weeks).

Despite 20 years of avid gardening, I have never engaged in the rampant plant moving so popular amongst so many of you. Apart from when forced to do some rejuvenating division, I either leave a plant where I put it or remove it altogether Vacant spots are rare so I am not using one for something I have already tried - not when there are so many other things to grow.
Thanks for the advice....expect more queries of this ilk now that I have a scary amount of space to fill.

I seldom move plants around either, Campanula. But I have moved ferns, including Athyrium filix-femina, in so far as I've obtained them from various sources and put them in my garden. Not ever had a problem, even with the old dried out ones which I rescued after they were dumped on the allotments.

no matter what i say .. or suggest ...

i am ALWAYS SURE... that anything i do.. will lead to death .. lol

no matter how many times i have done it before....

but then i usually fall back to the thought.. that if i ever saw it for sale... in a nursery pot.. then someone had to pot it up and plant it somewhere ... otherwise.. who would sell it ... and why would they be in the business ...

ken