Too dry a location will eventually kill it off. Where it's happy, it will cover ground fairly rapidly. If conditions are not ideal, it will tolerate them, but not spread as much nor become as tall and lush. Hay-scented fern, a member of the family Dennstaedtiaceae, gets its common name because the fronds, when bruised, smell sort of like fresh mown hay. There are no cultivars in existence.
Propagation is by spring division of the rhizomatous mats or spore.
I have tried dividing at other times of the year with little success. You really need to do this before the fronds break. The photo is of a group I dug and moved to a garden bed more than twenty years ago. The frond stalks or stipes can be tan, reddish or brownish. They have a moderate growth rate, spreading from stout, densely scaly, short rhizomes.