Bananas

There are few plants that can surpass the banana for giving the feel of the tropics to any garden.  Musa basjoo has been grown, and flowered,  in many parts of the UK now, and as long as the necessary attention is paid to winter protection, there is no reason why it couldn't be grown anywhere.  It is an exciting time for nana fans as there are now available cold hardy fruiting varieties.  Yes, it may be possible to pick your own bananas from the garden.  This needs to be tested, but I see no reason why it couldn't happen.  

Winter protection.

First of all Ensete ventricosum and the cv 'Maurellii'.  I have yet to discover a means to overwinter these in situ, so the best way is dig them up, keep the roots and leaves on, bung 'em in the shed and replant them in spring.  Easy as that.

Musas - If not protected ( other than a thick mulch ) Musa basjoo will grow as a giant herbaceous perennial from below ground each year.  It will still be a spectacular plant, but never totally, jaw-droppingly awesome.  If it is protected so that the trunk remains intact over winter, then whatever height the trunk is protected to is the height that growth will carry on from the following spring.  I use a large diameter twin-walled perforated land drainage pipe, which is robust but light enough to lift over 2.5m of trunk, but really anything goes.  I would avoid bubblewrap as I think it promotes rot - something porous such as fleece or hessian which is then covered with something more decorative.  A friend of mine gets quite creative and constructs a chicken wire cage around his each year, fills it with leaves, straw etc and disguises it as a small hut using woven reed screening. 

ENSETE

This is something of a newcomer - seed has only just become available but it is a plant with quite a lot of potential.  It is superficially similar to Ensete ventricosum but smaller with a much heavier glaucous patina.  If and when it reaches flowering size the flowers are stupendously beautiful, like a downward facing water-lily.  Good news - well it comes from high altitude in China and may possibly be hardy - can't wait to try.

This is the common old favourite that always impresses with it's speed of growth - a plant raised from seed will get to maybe 1.2m the first season and then enormous the second year.  Actually getting them to survive beyond that is the fun part, as the more you feed them, the bigger they get and the bigger they get the more difficult it is to get them to stay alive in winter.  It has a shorter, thicker trunk than other bananas, and thick textured, very broad, fresh green leaves leaves that defy the wind.  Trunk and midrib take on a dark red colouration that is especially pronounced during the summer, and older plants will develop a marked glaucous grey patina on the trunk and lower midrib.  If you can get a plant into it's 4th year then the leaves will get truly gigantic, and it is probably best to leave the plant in situ for it's final, dramatic flurry.  However they are easily replaced either from seed or nursery grown plants.  Totally  essential summer bedding plant for jungles.

If the plain species ( if I can call it plain ) is impressive and essential, than this is MORE than essential - in my view this is one of the finest foliage plants in the world.  It has the same short, thick trunk of the species, if anything even more compact and chunky enormous leaves, similar speed of growth but the colour - WOW !  The colour can vary from plant to plant, but in good specimens the  trunk, midrib and undersurface of the leaf are darkest purple, the leaf upper surface has purple on the midrib and leaf margins which bleeds irregularly into the leaf blade itself: these colours will intensify if grown outside, and the trunk will develop that glaucous patina as well.  I have been told that we are fortunate in this country because as the light levels increase in hotter climates, the colour actually diminishes, so there are some advantages to our latitude.  Every exoticist should have one.

Not much to say about this fella, superficially similar to Ensete ventricosum , possibly a bigger plant eventually but that isn't our concern ( unless you have a very large conservatory - see picture ) and maybe a showier flower.

HELICONIA

This is said to be the hardiest heliconia; it is found growing at high altitude in northern Mexico.  It is fairly small as heliconias go, to maybe 1.2m and has extremely showy, long-lasting, upright, scarlet and yellow flower bracts.  If it ever makes it into cultivation it is unlikely to be worth growing permanently outdoors anywhere in the UK ( except sheltered west country gardens or central London ) as it flowers on 2 year old stems and as such would survive and grow but never ( or at least hardly ever ) flower. However, as it's requirements are less than the usual tropical conditions needed, it should be a perfect patio plant for the summer and either kept ticking over frost free in a greenhouse or as a houseplant.

MUSA

One of the most commonly encountered bananas this eventually grows to maybe 2m and is capable of producing large hands of sweet edible fruit.  The thin leaves are attractively marked with small, irregular blotches of mauve.  Not the slightest bit hardy ( well, ok, some survive in the southwest or central London ) but excellent outside in the summer. 

The first choice banana for growing outdoors and possibly the hardiest of all, this really is as exotic as a hardy plant can get.  It has the potential to exceed 6m high if it is copiously fed and watered, which is really the secret of growing this plant well.  I would estimate a small plant bought from a nursery would be mature within 5 or 6 years if generously treated, whereupon it should flower regularly and produce a constant supply of new suckers at the base.  In turn these should mature to flowering size within 3 yrs once the plant is established as a thriving clump.  At it's peak in the summer it can produce a new 2m long leaf each week, which isn't bad going.  Protect the plant as described above and you will have one of the most rewarding - and exotic - plants it is possible to grow.  The only failing really is that the leaves are terribly prone to becoming shredded in the wind, so ideally place it where there is adequate shelter.  It doesn't harm the plant to be shredded in this way: some people actually prefer the look of these tattered leaves as that is how they appear in the tropics.  

The leaves tend to crisp when temperatures dip below around -3°C or lower; this is the time to protect the plant.  The stems are generally hardy to around -4°C, which is enough in many winters for those in the southwest or central London not to have to worry about protection.  There is a form of this plant in circulation said to have come from Sakhalin, as opposed to the southern Islands of Japan, and thus allegedly hardier, having survived -11°C in an unheated greenhouse without protection as small potted plants.  Certainly the plant I have looks slightly stockier and tougher, but it is early days. ( 1998 )

Indoor or conservatory ornamental with beautiful pink flowers.  Reaches maybe 1.8m in a pot.

An exciting new introduction, seeds of this plant were collected and distributed for the first time in 1998.  Described as a large and vigorous banana up to 6m tall with a 60cm thick red-tinted trunk, tough textured leaves that are tinted red when young that have a glossy dark green upper surface.  The good news is that it comes from very high altitude in the Himalaya of North India, and could well prove to be extremely hardy.  Can't wait !

An interesting dwarf banana reaching maybe 2m high when planted out.  It has a blue-ish cast to the leaves and an incredibly beautiful pink inflorescence, followed by short fat ornamental pink fruits.  This is another of those plants that should be tried outdoors, as in many regions of the USA it is grown successfully.  We shall see. 

A large vigorous fruiting variety of banana that, at time of writing, may not even be in the UK at the moment.  It is one of the plants that needs to be tested outdoors as there are reliable reports that it is very cold hardy.

A dwarf variety of the cv 'Orinoco - see under that name for details.

Another suspect for picking your own home grown bananas, again a large and vigorous grower.

This is the most commonly planted banana in the USA, both for it's fruit and as a landscaping specimen.  Large, vigorous, freely flowering and fruiting, it is also said to be one of the most cold hardy bananas grown in the US.  Hmmm.

This is a really exciting plant.  From India, this is a dwarf banana to maybe 2m high, with a very chunky, robust trunk and thick textured foliage - along the lines of ensete leaves - that should prove resistant to wind tearing.  It is ALSO very cold hardy - said to be second only to Musa basjoo in cold hardiness.  PLUS it has large hands of edible fruit.  All of this adds up to an ESSENTIAL plant for the exotic garden, especially where isn't room for a fully fledged Musa basjoo.   C'mon, form an orderly queue, please......

Or maybe just a form of Musa acuminata, but whatever it is called this is a spectacular plant, with the most dramatic colouration on the leaves in the form of large, irregular wine-red blotches.  At maybe 2m high it isn't a whopper, so easily kept growing in a pot and wheeled out for the summer months.

MUSELLA

A closely related plant to musa, in fact still erroneously called that in the RHS gardens at Wisley - shame on them, this is a small freely suckering plant with a distinctively bottle-shaped trunk and short, broad paddle-shaped leaves.  When it flowers, the inflorescence is very showy indeed with bright butter yellow bracts on an upright stalk.  It is also said to be very hardy, although I don't actually know anyone that has one planted out ( if  you have and are reading this, please let me know ).

STRELITZIA

Not a banana but a giant herbaceous plant with huge paddle shaped leaves held aloft on long stalks and although not as showy in flower as the more familiar S. reginae ( below ) it is still very dramatic.  It is also either a touch hardier or a little more tender - according your reading - but either way may be worth trying in sheltered west country or central London gardens.

A very familiar ( I won't bother describing it ) plant from the house plant brigade, this has potential for growing outside in the west country or central London.  I know someone that grows this in Marazion, in Cornwall, and couple of years ago they experienced the worst winter for 100 yrs, with a low of around -10°C.  Some of the plant was damaged, but it survived and has begun to regrow to it's former stature.  Interesting..... 

 

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