njoynit,
We call that Southern wood fern over here in Mississippi. I have some on the north facing wall of my house and it is just beautiful every year. Mine is already starting to sprout now so I went ahead and cleared off all the dead fronds from last year. It does die back every winter and I leave the fronds to protect it during the cold weather. It's easily controlled by just mowing across the front where I don't want it to grow and the bed itself is nice and thick--real pretty from early
spring till first good frost in the fall.