Has anyone grown this? I had such a good experience with an Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii' this year that Im already shopping for other tall bananas or banana like plants for containers for next year. If anyone has any ideas for companion container plants I'm interested in those ideas too.
Musa 'Margarita"
I was looking into it recently, but I didn't buy it. I think it is a green sport of 'Siam Ruby' with a pretty pale light green color. I'm not sure, but I think it's ornamental and doesn't bear fruit. I recently bought some bananas from Stokes Tropicals, Logee's, and Yahoo Store Greenearth Inc., and I'm happy with my purchases. I think Logee's in particular has some nice dwarf ones for containers.
Hey, thanks! Being in chilly zone 5, Musas and Ensetes are annuals and grown mostly for foliage. I love them! I cant wait until next growing season to pot up some new ones. The Maurellii is 8 ft tall and gorgeous. I'll check out those sources.
Yeah, I have Maurellii too and love it. Here's my little banana patch so far.
Lovely, lovely, lovely! Nice healthy plants and good composition in the plantings. Be proud!
You don't live that far from me and I grow musa basjoo outside all year round. ;) Here are my babies this year, as of last weekend (they've been outside for three years now.) They're at about eleven feet. They should hit twelve to thirteen feet before the first frost. :)
The door is on a west side, the wall to the right is on the north side. I dug out a window well and filled it with wood ash, then very rich soil. After the frost knocks the leaves down I cut the trunks back to about a foot high, then I build a low cage of chicken wire over top of them and fill it with two feet of fall leaves.
They're very easy to grow, and as you can see, very dramatic. :)
-Joe
I'm envious. I think the position next to a wall keeps your soil warmer in the winter. I would have no way of duplicating that. :( Plus you're a zone warmer. My Maurellii is about 8-1/2 to 9' at the moment. I just love it. It was small enough to come home from the garden center on the front seat of my Miata. You are correct in that they are very easy to grow.
My zip places me within 5b. I call myself 6a because I live far enough in the city to benefit from a small heat island effect. I consider myself a zone optimist.
If you plant it against a foundation and mulch it well it will come back. Another species you might try (I haven't been brave enough to try yet) is musa itinerans, the Yunnan banana. If I am thinking of the right species, there's a variety called gigantea that is truly stupendous. :) http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/158847/ Be careful, it can crack foundations.
I also grow albizia julibrissin (mimosa), poncirus trifoliata (Japanese bitter orange), rhaphidophyllum hystrix (needle palm), trachycarpus fortuneii (windmill palm), jasminum x stephanense (Stephan's jasmine), lagerstroemia indica (crape myrtle "Red Rocket"), datura metel (Devil's trumpet), phyllostachys aureosulcata (yellow grove bamboo), and arundaria gigantea (cane brake.)
I haven't had any luck yet with palmettos, but I keep trying. :)
I pay close attention to microclimates around my property.
You might be surprised to find your own little corner of zone 6b hiding amongst the nooks and crannies. :)
-Joe
Thanks for the compliment, Snapple!
Well. Joe. Now I'm encouraged to give it try at over wintering a tropical. That's an impressive plant list. Probably even more impressive when I look them all up. :) I'll bet your neighbors find your landscape an interesting change from the usual tree, conifer, shrub, perennial combinations generally in play in this region.