My chinese yellow banana (Musella Lasiocarpa) is going to bloom soon. On this thread I am going to capture the process in a series of pictures as the bloom develops. Here is the first pic. As you can see, the trunk has turned color and it has short flag leaves.
Oh how exciting for you Lisa! Mine bloomed last year in August. We had to move everything in for the winter the first of November. The bloom was huge and vibrant yellow. That nana sat in a dark room all winter long, without any water and when DH brought them home this weekend the bloom is still there, and looks extremely healthy. I couldn't belive me eyes.
I'll be watching for updates on this. I love all the changes!
unfair. you have all the plants that I wish I can grow in az.
Hey I went to school in Tempe! you should be able to grow quite a few plants there, in the shade, w/ a mister...oh ok but every place has something special.
lovestropics...this banana grows to zone 7, its very hardy. If you go back to my thread on my new tropicals-this banana is in the picture- and I am going to plant it in full sun-but water it a lot.
lovestropics might have to avoid hot afternoon sun, but I think it could be done.
tigerlily--so far I have killed one lasiocarpa.
aprilwillis--you are right. My yard is pretty young and I had just planted some trees. I guess I should wait till they provide some shade before I try these exotic plants. I am killing fewer plants now than I did 3 years ago. I guess I am learning!LOL!!
Are you guys saying that this plant doesn't like full sun?? I may be in trouble....is anyone growing it in full sun-or if some shade-am or afternoon sun?? How about ornamental bananas? ( is that what this is??)
Yes, it is an ornamental and has a beautiful flower. Mine is in full sun. It is essential that is gets plenty of water. It is the only banana that I have that is in a pot. I drug it inside one night during the winter, other than that it remained outside. The other day, I counted 26 pups around its base.
Thanks Rylaff...why is it in a pot...is there something about the plant that prevents you from putting it in the ground? Haven't planted mine yet, so still looking for info about this and its great that you have experience with it and I can pick your brain!
May I ask what size container you have it in?
It is in the biggest darn pot that Walmart had. Very big. You can imagine, one large banana and 26 pups.
It was an experiment. I put one in the ground and one in a pot . The one in the pot won by a mile. I think being in the pot keeps the roots moistier(is that a word?). The one in the ground is much much smaller.
Todays pic as it progresses along.
i just purchased a small tree and i'm still unsure what i want to do with it. i've had it in full sun and noticed one of the leaves turning a little brown. do you think it needs some shade? (i think i've been watering it enough.) does this banana grow shorter than most?
Yes, it is much shorter than others. I have mine in full sun in a large pot. I water it every day. I wonder if yours is not getting enough water.
i think i'll stick with your method...keeping it in the pot, especially if you say it does better there. i'm a woman that needs options!! LOL keeping my plants in pots lets me change my mind whenever i want!! (and it's an added extra that i can find out where the plant really wants to be.) so walmart sells some pretty big pots? thanks for the info. i'll try watering it more. keep the pictures coming. it's beautiful! (the picture of your bloom kinda why i bought one.) do you have a pic of the entire tree?? how long have you had this banana?
This one will grow in full sun here as long as I remember to water. I have some in part shade too. Water is the key, they don't like to stay too dry. Mine never get more than 3 or 4 ft tall, but they do get really wide from the pups at the base!
So if I plant mine outside soon, there should be some babies to dig up and overwinter in pots this late fall? It is supposed to be hardy here, and I am pretty sure it will come back, but I would like a backup plant or two for next summer
tigerlily, I can't imagine you not having many backups! I think we pulled 17 pups off last year.....and there are probably that many + this year.
I find the large (14") pots at Big Lots are much less expensive than at WalMart. For the really large ones (20" to 24") Sam's Club and Costco have the best deals around here.
omg Brinda...what is that thing lol...is that the banana?? Was it a single stem when you planted it? Like in June? I need to get mine in the ground!! Why did you dig it up? Its supposed to be hardy for your zone. My goal is to get a bunch of cold hardy tropicals in the ground that don't need to be dug up in November.
LOL, yep that's a nana! It is a chinese yellow banana Musella Lasiocarpa. I purchased the original plant in 2004 and overwintered it inside in a pot. That pic was taken in April of 2005, just after bringing it out of it's dark room we had it overwintering in. Once established, they grow like crazy....and the pups just keep coming. I've given so many away....and have many more this year.
I've kept them in pots because I don't have my garden completed where I want to plant them. I'm not sure they will be hardy to this zone even though they are supposed to. I'm anxious to get this garden done and give them a try.
Here is a pic of the roots when we took it out of the pot. I had it in a pot apprx 18" accross.
I bought mine last year as a small plant. It had several pups around it. Here is a pic from further back.
Todays bloom
Lisa, great bloom!!
Oh Lisa, that is great! I had no idea how long these blooms lasted. Mine bloomed in August of last year and it's still there. It is just now getting to where it's looking bad and needs to be cut off. This plant really amazes me, please keep us posted on this bloom. I love it!
That is really nice!
This is my pink one
A group of my lasiocarpas. These are pups form my original one that I finally got into the ground. The mother plant sailed through the winter here with no protection required, but I'm going to cover these with leaves so as not to lose any height. Before now, I overwintered them inside in 1 gallon pots.
Oh April. Look at that. Wow.
april, that is really pretty! enjoy it!
April~
Lovely pink nanner!
What's the morning glory-looking flower?
Robert.
I wish I could say I worked hard to get that pink one to bloom...no way, the mom froze in one of our only 2 brief freezes in the winter, this is the baby so i didn'[t expect anything.
The other pink thing is a morning glory bush- it's root hardy here, but due to same weather as above it didn't freeze back. It grows wildly - I mean it's not at all well manored, but it is pretty and always full of blooms- reseeds like crazy and I am sure that my neighbors hate me. Extremely easy to root.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/52996/index.html
Rylaff,
That's a pretty flower you've got there..... I'm hoping to get something like that off of my Musella sometime in the next two years, but with the plants being marginal in my zone, I don't know if that's possible (I'm going to try protecting it by burying the entire pseudostem under a pile of leaves).
You guys probably think I'm insane, but here's the plant I got, along with my two Needle Palm seedlings I planted this year:
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/Hikaro_Takayama_1150849173_135.jpg
Good luck with that. I love to push the zones myself.
Hikaro~
I planted my lasiocarpa very deep and the next spring it started into growth very early (before the temps had really warmed up, really) and later bloomed. Zone 7b isn't that far from 6b so maybe if yours are deeply set and mulched (maybe with a cage of leaves around the stem) it should make it. Good luck!
I'm going to try my "Rojo" in the ground this year but will have a pup indoors "just in case".
Robert.
Well, I'm not building a cage, but my Grandmother has 3 HUGE oak trees in her yard that all drop a TON of leaves in the fall, so when I help rake them up this year, I'm going to fill a couple of 50 gallon trash bags full, and bury the Yellow banana under a HUGE pile of oak leaves. I'm also planning on putting about 6 inches of mulch around my Musa basjoos as a permanent mulch, which should be sufficient protection/soil amendment (especially with the bamboo grove and deciduous trees making their annual contributions to the pile).
YOu could wrap them.
