Musa Basjoo

I'd like to have a couple modest sized hardy banana plants in the garden, but I have some reservations about planing them this late in the season.

Is it too late to put some pups in the ground and have them survive their first winter or should I pot these monkies up for this winter?

if you want to play it totally safe, i would pot and then plant inground the first chance you get next spring. these things are supposed to be hardy to z5.

the basjoo is verry hardy and it should be ok i have many of theese as well as many other tropicals and if you plant it now and water and fertalize heavely you should be able to put some size on the in the next 2 months or so but then again to be safe you could just wait until spring but theyy really take off when there in the ground.


I have heard of people mulching and theese have made it through cleavland ohio winters

Awesome!

Carla ... you're pretty close neighbors to a man I am remotely familiar with who seemingly enjoys testing the limits of what does and doesn't constitute true winter "hardiness" for many a tropical species. lol

is his name brian williams an if so we are good friends i even have pictures of his nursery up on www.voodoo-lily.smugmug.com

Nice work, dude! I like your photography. What sort of music do you enjoy playing/writing? Perhaps we could jam some time.

And, yeah, it was Brian I was referring to. I assume he's either out of town or I scared him away with a somewhat humorously manic letter (well, I thought it humorous at least) with a number of questions about some of his Frankensteinian hybrids. I started that letter asking him this same question about the Basjoo's as he is the person I plan on buying several from.

By the way ... do you have any of those funky looking, stupidly winter hardy pink-stemmed Colocasias from China that he's had for a while now? I thought he was blowing smoke where it doesn't belong with the claim that they're hardy to zone 5, but I've since rethought that opinion (basically because I thought it was some random, garden variety muppett making said claim)

Thanks again for your input. With what Brian's asking for those Basjoo's I can afford to drop a few in the dirt and mulch 'em up hard in October and keep one inside with me in the studio.

Peace off,
Buck

lol yes i have the pink china and yes there that hardy his mom didnt even mulch and they came back.

im currently writing progressive rock and learning how to solo at 16th notes at 200 bpm let me tell you it aint easy but i bought rock disiplen by john petrucci from dream theater and he is the man but im getting close lol

and me and brian are good friends im even crossing cannas from his new hybrids and some other tropicals ee's and voodoo lily's ect.

You could poke someone's eye out playing like that. Myself? ... I tend to more enjoy the mellower, smooth jazz-like compositions of Mr. Vai ( ... ok, perhaps not mellow nor "smooth jazz-like" but anyhow ...) I play more like Michael Hedges after someone slipped some demoral and tequilla in his O.J. lol

Now that I think about it, my compositions aren't even good enough to qualify as his drunken, left over drivel.

Oh well.

Thanks for the info, dude. I'll drop some of these in the ground after they get here and mulch 'em up with the pink stem colo's this fall. Oh, and tell Brian that the dude from the "earthling.net" email address is harmless ... or even "mostly harmless" if you feel so. lol

(edit: try crossing some of those pink colo's with one of the smaller colo's and get us some more semi-hardy 'ears!!!!)

This message was edited Aug 26, 2005 2:09 PM

thats what me and brian are doing as we speak we are trying to cross pink china and macrorrhiza so it should be cool. i will also try breeding bananas to the basjoo to make some color in a hardy banana. brian knows his stuff and yes he really has that much stuff i spend hours sometimes just walking around and i dug up about 50 canna omega of his this past week for my garden. i have not seen to many of theese so im excited for the spring. i may even run a green house just for breeding this winter so i dont have to stop my hybrids lol.

Hmmm ... my macrorrhiza's are actually on the large side. I was thinking something more along the lines of a Frydek (insofar as adult size is concerned .... and while on that, can an Alo. and Colo. even be cross polinated?)

I would like to see a picture of a Pink China, do you have one you could share.

Linda

i know the alocasia are easier to breed but as far as crossing the 2 im still new to the ee's so im not sure but if its possible try it there arent many people crossing ee's at the moment

Except for doctor Williams, evidently ...

What do you think of his "Williams Hybrid #2"? I've only seen pictures, but it (from an extreme distance) looks like another macrorrhiza based hybrid.

Oh ..... and if he's trying the winter hardy chinese one with a macrorrhiza, then I suppose there might be a chance )in his mind, at least) that a colocasia and alocasia mix is possible.

:shrugs:

2pugs

(this image belongs to Brian Williams, I borrowed it for the betterment of Aroidkind)

yes theese are from this summer at brians mine are still babies but its the ones in front with the pink stem

the picture that you put up are at his moms place the one i took isat his nursery

Is his mom the blonde in that series of pics? If so, she either looks awesome for her age, had him when she basically prepubescent, or Brian's a mere pup himself.

yes thats his mom and he is 26 lol

Ah, then it's the latter ... sheesh, I'm really starting to feel old, even around these forums!!!!!!!!

macrorrhiza is easy to cross with so im sure it is but so far he has came up with some reall cool hybrids of many tropicals from canna to amorphophallus and he has even written articles for the international aroid society's yearly publication he is the real deal when it comes to plants i owe him big for his knowlege and plant varieties. he has singlehandedly got me into breeding aroids

Oh, I know he's the real deal alright. I was somewhat surprised at his age as he already has developed a bit of a name for himself. My comment about thinking smoke was being blown up me bum had to do more with the fact that I had no idea who the person making was that was making that claim. I had not connected the dots between pug poo and the young Mr. Williams! lol

I was once a rather obsessed amateur botanist and well read student of all things horticultural. That was not only a long, long time ago, but it is also a very long and sordid story in its own right.

Too cool to have a mentor who's also a great friend! Like I may have mentioned earlier, have that boy check his email and whatnot. I had offered to do the grunt work of compiling a bit more comprehensive of a database about all things Alocasia/Colocasia/Xanthosoma if he could just point me in the right direction(s) for the information in question. I mean, I'm not looking to get anything out of the deal except for some good firsthand knowledge and it wouldn't cost anybody much of any work except to briefly answer a few questions. This is just the sort of thing I do when I get overly focused on a subject. :o) My last compendium of questionably useful information (over 5,000 pages worth) was lost by our "friends" at Yahoo! (they hosted the server for my now defunct domain, BucksWorld.com)

Anyhow, if you'd be so kind as to pass that along, dude, I'd be much obliged! What I am looking for would be extremely helpful to me in the short run and probably useful for a good number of other 'ear fanciers from more temperate climates such as our own.

well he just got back from florida from vacation and hes hedding back for the aroid show. but ill catch him in the next few days. he has been colecting for around 11 years and wow what a collection it is and ill pass it on. im a year older so mentor lol well i guess but then i feel old lol

The China Pink is very pretty, I can't imagine crossing it and the macrorrhiza, I agree with you I think it will be a really cool EE . I need to look around an see where I can get me a China Pink. Thanks for the pictures you posted. I plan on keeping a watch on this thread, to see what neat things you post.

Linda

hey linda brian may have a few babies still his web site is http://www.cloudjungle.dns2go.com/dotnetnuke/briansbotanicals/
tell him jerry sent you it might help if he still has some for the season

Have you all been wintering China Pink and Big Dipper in the ground down there?

I've had BD for a few years now.
Picked it up at a garden show here in Cincy, from a Louisville dealer.
Imagine that! lol

Ric

pink china will survive our winters so we leave them in the ground you can mulch them good to be safe

Carla I am going to call Cloud Jungle Mon. to check on the China Pink. Does this one take full sun or shade? Does it require a lot of water, or good drainage? I can't find to much info on the net on it.

Linda

2pug ... Brian (of Cloudjungle) also has some of the china pink listed on eBay. His screenname there is 'Alocasiagrower' (I believe). Brian does a bang up job of packaging and privides (in my limited experience) wonderfully well established plants where warranted. The China Pink came almost naked root, wrapped in wet peat and plastic. They're evidently rather tough as they were breaking new shoots within the week. The Frydek and ... uh oh ... the other one I've purchased (yeah, that's its name!) were wonderfully packed and were well established pups.

2pug: being a Colocasia, I'd think lots of water and well drained soil. I don't imagine any of ear plants/caladiums enjoy soggy, stagnant soil. I have my youngsters in full sun and the leaves aren't wilting or showing any signs of sun stress. According to the description on eBay, this plant is both a runner and bulbette former. The only other Colo's I am read up on that fit that description are more on the sun loving side.

Carla ... have you guys worked on a cross of one of the black runner type C. esculentas with the China Pink? I'd imagine keeping things in the same genus (or, as they say in some places, "keepin' it in th' family") might make for a more natural fit, genetically speaking. Of course, that totally conflicts with the parenthetic comment above, but alas, I digress ...

I checked Ebay last night and didn't see any, but I will go back and recheck. Thanks for all the Information BogweedBuck. I thought I had already sent this. But in the meantime I did find one from Brian on EBay for $10. I really like the ideal of it being hardy in my zone.

Thanks again.

Linda

BTW if anyone else is interested his member profile name is "aroidgrower".

Linda

cool you will love them as far as crossing i know more about what im crossing brian does so much that im not sure what all hes crossing.

but that would be cool

Yeah, I was thinkin' a trippier Colocasia version of the Illustris!

no macrorrhiza is a big ee that will grow a trunk. ive seen them almost 10 feet high at the trunk before the leaves

Will keep us up on it, cause it does sound interesting. It sounds like something we EE lovers might like to check out, and have growing in our yards. Maybe it would be zone 6a hardy. Love those hardys.

Linda

i know he just crossed pink china black majic and a few others i was out there tonight.

im going saturday and ill take pictures for you all

Black magic and pink china yes please do sent pictures. You must be a night owl too, will I am heading to bed I keep hitting the wrong keys.
Night.

Linda

good night talk to you tomorow