When to plant decorative Bananas??

I'm considering buying some decorative bananas - Musa Basjoo, but not sure weather to wait till spring or go ahead- I'm in the northern part of SC zone 7b but right on the line with zone 8. Buy and plant now or wait till Spring.

They are hardy in your area. Do you have some place to winter them over? If the price is great right now, they would only need to be kept from freezing til spring. Here's a link with some info on them.

http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/musa-basjoo/

yeah I know they're hardy... I don't think there's be any price difference... just wanted to know if they'd have time to establish..

I am not sure of your first freeze date, but they would have less than three months to root out before cold weather. It would be wisest to let the nursery baby-sit them over the winter and plant them after your last frost date.

That's what I figured...but Planning isn't nearly as fun as planting. I'll probably have a big "to plant" list by spring.

Know what you mean...there is always something to be dug either in or out....grin

That would suck to have to wait an entire winter to plant! I've always been told to wait beyond our summer to plant, since it's too hot, but I plant at any time of the year with success. How are your winters in SC?

Grantman. Have you guys started getting the wet weather being pushed out of Africa? Understand there are three possible storms brewing and one close to getting a name?

We're supposed to get a tropical wave being blown from the disorganized low pressure system in the caribbean. They're talking about a large area of low pressure T-storm clusters that just blew off Africa, but it's too far away to tell. TD2, which is the one that was 1mph of windspeed away from being a named tropical storm got sheared by some easterlies and dropped down to 30 mph, but it looks like it's reorganizing again. It's too early to tell with storms so far out. Some models put the things on my doorstep, others go into the gulf, and some curve into the Atlantic north, and even others go into the Carolinas. It's all speculatory, since these storms could just get sheared to death and we might not get but a gust of wind. All I know is we've been very fortunate this, and for the most part, last year.

Last year Gustav was a nasty boy here, but nothing like Katrina and Rita in 2005. Let's hear it for the easterly wind shear.

Yeah Gustav was pretty nasty, but you all held up a lot better with him than you did Katrina, then Rita. Go wind shear!

Winter here isn't really bad but can get to the teens and possibly below every once and a great while....I guess I'll have plenty of time to plan the "tropical bed"

Welcome to the club of Impatient Gardeners....grin It is one area I can understand the impatience of children.....but I wanna do it NOW, uh, please.