Josh, It is difficult to ID your bananas from your picture, but I can tell you with confidence that they are not musa basjoo. New leaves on young plants have red colouring underneath the leaf, your plants do not show that. Also, the the petioles are not winged like basjoo are. Do you dig up your plants in winter or keep them in the ground?

Hi Banana Fun. I've always had my suspicions that they are not basjoo so I dug them up last year and stored them in my basement storage room. I've looked at so many pictures online and was never convinced they are basjoos. They look more like saba or something like that.

Jay

Josh, there is a lot of that going around. Three years ago I got stung from two different sellers on ebay.They either try to cash in on the basjoo "craze", or they REALLY think they are selling basjoo.Those chalky white stems are a clue.

I've searched around like crazy and I think I have Ice Cream bananas. Agree or disagree?

Jay

Jay, there are a lot of banana cultivars out there; it's probably impossible to identify your banana for certain without seeing flowers and/or fruit.

OK look at this.

My bananas last year
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Other "for sure" Ice Cream bananas from sandy0225 on Webshots. You be the judge.
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One more clue....those tall older banana pictures, was it really older before it put out pups? Like 8 feet tall, before it got even one on it? That's what my ice cream banana did. I thought it never was going to get a pup on it and then all of a sudden it put out three.It was also an exceptional one to overwinter in the greenhouse at 50 degrees, it had almost no change in condition of the leaves or anything, except that it was too tall and the heater mounted in the greenhouse was blowing on it and dried out the leaves some.
TTYL
Sandy

Sandy your right. The one on the left in the picture sunk into the ground in its pot I didn't get until August of last summer. I got it for free at the nursery where I got the other. The owner was going to throw it away and said I could have it. So I'm not sure when it pupped. The one on the right I grew from 4ft tall and your right it didn't pup out until August when it was around 6 to 8ft. Basjoo do seem to pup out earlier judging by all the pics and other gardens I've seen in person. However, if mine is an Ice Cream, the pups on it now are just ones continuing from last year that just didn't break the surface. Sorry for taking your pic. I hope it was OK. It was a very good example of Ice Cream Blue Java. Very nice by the way. Thanks for the help.

Jay

Very nice pics!! I am a banana newbie, so I don't really know the difference yet between a basjoo and an ice cream. But is the ice cream banana hardy in zone 6? Is it as hardy as the Basjoo??

This is my first try at bananas... I have a few new baby Basjoo's that are not in the ground yet (waiting for our landscapers to get done with all the hardscaping first, so I can plant them in my new beds!). I like how the ice cream bananas look... and I will give them a try if they are hardy.

I don't care who uses my pictures, so don't worry about it. Any publicity is good publicity, they say. When you grow and sell bananas in Indiana, you need all the help you can get!Mental and other....LOL...I have noticed that ice creams don't pup until they are larger, much larger than the basjoo. Bordelons are about the fastest puppers I've grown so far. Sometimes they are getting pups when only 2 feet tall. And if you cut them off, they just keep cranking them out!
Ice cream banana isn't hardy, but one of the good ones to carry over winter, coniferfreak. They're not conifers though...lol...I should get more sleep, huh?
Big garden fair today.