Variegated banana again

Hi All! I've been super busy and haven't had time to post in a long while, but I had some growth in my greenhouse that I thought I would show off today. It's my new variegated banana. I had purchased four AeAe's this past summer and managed to kill them all. My only consolation is that I know of expert gardeners here who have experienced the same thing with this plant.

My good friend told me that the trick is to plant them in mostly all Perlite or half potting soil and half Perlite and water only when you see growth after the intial planting. Well, I bought several more variegated bananas, including some Thai ones, and so far, none of them have rotted yet. They are in my greenhouse, where it is very warm in the daytime but cool at night. All my other bananas are outside in the ground and doing great and still showing some growth this winter. A few of the young ones have some yellow and brown leaves, but I think they will eventually recover from that cold damage.

This one arrived as a sword pup:

Here also is a pretty variegated adenium blooming now:

And another one:

I do like plants with variegated foliage:

This is a new Calathia that my husband just brought home from Home Depot:

What a nice husband. Do you think the Thai bananas will be stronger than the domestic strains of AeAe?

Hi Alice! Yes, I've heard that. I've heard that they pup well, can tolerate full sun, and are a lot less fussy than the AeAe. Time will tell. This picture below belongs to a friend of mine that I bought a few variegated bananas from. I believe this one is a Dwarf Namwah.

This message was edited Jan 10, 2010 9:43 AM

I Love Love Love your nana's. The one I started from seed didnt make it when I brought it in for the winter, but I will try again this spring. I think the variegated are the nicest looking.
Yours are so beautiful, I'm jealous :>)
Christine

Thanks, Christine. I love the variegated bananas too. There are a couple of people here on this forum than have really nice variegated bananas, but the AeAe seem to be very prone to dying when overwatered. I'll post a picture of mine as soon as they are grow out if they survive the winter.

I think that drainage is the 'basic'' with the "A'eA'e" (actually Koa'A'e). We grow them, fruit them and get up to 160" of rain annually. Go figger. They grow in basically lava cinders...LOTS of potassium.

Beautiful pictures.
On ebay Singapore , they sell seeds of Musa ornata (Variegated Banana).
I have doubts, look varied foliage is not transmitted by seed. We may get banana Musa ornata Botanicus.

As the seeds of Ensete ventricosum var. Maurelii will give E. Ventricosum with green foliage.
What do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/New-Variegated-Banana-Musa-Ornata-Roxb-6-Seeds-Rare_W0QQitemZ180428989602QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2a0267e4a2
Dany

Thanks, Carol. You have some amazing plants there where you are.

Dany, I agree with you. The chances of getting a variegated plant from seed are extremely slim to none. I think the seller would be sowing all the seeds herself if the seeds produced any variegated plants. A friend of mine bought one of those plants from her for around $300. She had three plants for sale and kept raising the price every time she sold one until the last one was priced at $1880. Ridiculous. I don't think she will ever sell her last one at that price.

Holy Smoke!!!! We have had one of the Koa A'e revert to all green. All of the bananas weren't variegated either....but it pupped a variegate. FUN!

here's my baby. This time I really lightened my soil w/ perlite and I water sparingly. so far so good, in fact, I may be watering too little. what do you think?

From my experience here, where the soil is basically cinders with some organic matter and we get over 15 FEET of rain annually...bananas like a lot of water, but they don't like to have soggy feet. The pH generally is slightly acid. I know they like potassium (we dump wood stove ashes around them). They are also understory plants, and do well in part sun...but we grow our bananas in full sun...the variegated ones are in part shade.

Carol

MelTN was really successful growing out a KoaA'e for years...even got fruit. You might ask her.

thanks, just dmailed her

That's a beautiful plant, Nery. I think you could water more since you have good drainage and three nice leaves. I think I am probably underwatering too, but until they get leaves or show some growth, I'm withholding water because I killed my last ones by overwatering.

I only have one AeAe. The other ones are Thai variegated ones.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2012 4:53 PM