That is very nice. I love the bamboo fence. I am going to try that. I love the way that looks, gives it a real tropical feel. Nice work on the yard.

Hi - here are a couple of pictures of my fledgling tropical deck. I have two bananas in addition to mandevilla, brugmansia, key lime, plumeria, bougainvillea, and gerbera daisies!

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swmcduff, are you really in oregon??? Your plants are amazing! I assumed at first that you were in florida or somewhere similar. Do the bananas along your drive overwinter outside - they are huge - I can't imaging bringing them in each year. Can you tell me what kind they are?

I am on my second year with bananas and here is a pic of one that was just recently given to me. Don't know the name of it but this one is a baby off of a much larger plant. It has taken the transplant quite well so I thinking it will put on a good show next year.

BTW this is a great idea - I LOVE looking at everyones gardens
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Here is a link that might be useful: Garden 2006

I really like looking at the yards too, gives me ideas. I think yall have done a great job. I am really impressed with those zones that need extra work to keep them growing. I am one of those zones that must close everything up for winter and play house in the summer. Here are a few of my plants. I grow palms, orchids and tree ferns. I am still working on my patio, and moving plants around. These are big boy plants too. :-)

small palms
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California fan palm, still trying to find a place to put it. 4 inchs of trunk.
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Still have alot of landscaping to do.
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Bowl of bananas, my 12 nana got storm damage, its in recovery.
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Spindle palms
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Queen palm and triangle palm
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Looking up at my big banana
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Jungle
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Orchids, blooms every year about this time. 8 big yellow flowers, just beautiful.
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Dont you just love summer time?

Rob

I do live in Oregon (Portland). It's not as cold here as most people think.

The bananas along the driveway are all basjoos. Almost all of them originate from one plant that I have continuously cut pups off over the years. They're probably around 15ft (from ground to highest leaf), but I've never measured them. I've had two bloom so far. They're about 4 years old.

All of the other bananas are mixtures of Sikkimensis, Red Abysinnian, Ice Cream, Praying Hands, Bordelon, Brazilian, Chinese Yellow, Thomsonii, Kandrian, and probably a few I'm forgetting...

I wrap all the bananas in black fleece for the winter. However, the only ones that survive without dying to the ground each year are the basjoo and Sikkimensis. All other have to start over each year.

Everything will get exponentially bigger by September, so I'll retake pictures then.

orchiddude - I like the palms.

jeff-n-jessa 4 - Do you know what kind of banana that is. I like the deep dark green and wide leaves.

The top picture is a Super Dwarf Cavendish, the bottom is a newly purchased Dwarf Green.

This post inspired me to take some pictures this morning. Hope you enjoy them.

Here is a link that might be useful: July photos

hi swmcduff,backyard picture below.john

Here is a link that might be useful: back yard

Looks great Jon. Where can I get a hut like yours, with the brown palm leaves on top? I like the surfboard table too. 2 thumbs up

Hi orchiddude,I had a gazebo made without the roof.You can find palm thatched covers on ebay or online.You can use raffia grass also(much cheeper).Thanks for your comments and good luck with your landscape.john

Here is a link that might be useful: ebay

Thanks Jon, great resource!

SWMcDuff,
Great pictures! Love the boo and the 'nanas! What are you going to grow on the trellis between the boo?
Also, how about mixing in some varigated cannas?

wanna_run_faster - I probably have as much canna as I do bananas and bamboo, but for some reason their growth has really been stunted this year. I didn't have any canna blooms until last week.... after the pictures. Now I've got dozens, maybe hundreds of blooms. Trust me though, they're all there.... stutgart too(spelling?).

I've also got ginger and dahlias that aren't growing either.... can't figure it out.

Oh, to answer the question about the trellace, I put Hardy Kiwi on there because I heard it grew fast. It has barely grown at all. I have another vine on another trellace that you can almost watch grow. I should have used more of that.

I thought somebody might like to see the stages of banana formation so I made this photoshow. It's been very interesting for us northerners who never saw this before. With the HOT and rainy weather we've been having, I'm hoping they will ripen so I don't have to try and lug this tree into the garage for Winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening in NJ/Bananas

Ohbie1...nice show but it hangs up. When you look at the album, I see 3 big red X's where pictures should be. You might look at it and fix it. Nice music...

Thanks for the compliment. 90% of the credit goes to Photoshow software. I think it's working now (I re-uploaded it).

here's my raja puri with 3 plants bout same size on one mother corm.. i wanted to see the mat effect. i also wanted to know how the three plants would fruit in order? then i wanted to know the effect it would have on fruit..



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here's my fhia18 thanks to runboy banana villa

it has started paddle leaf at 6'



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overall plant

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delmonte gold pineapples

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3 delmonte golds



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Baby Africian{{gwi:414445}}



SugarLoaf Slips from Exotic Fruit



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__________________

Happy Growing,



SG

Enjoy Life as it's too Short

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Here is my banana patch. There are 4 bananas in the bottom picture. The ones on the far left and right are the Basjoos. The one in the front middle is the dwarf orinoco and the one in the back is an ice cream banana. If you look closely, you can see a papaya tree in a pot. Just for reference, here is the banana on the far left, after I unwrapped it this past spring.(mid April) It was about as tall as your knee. The dwarf orinoco was potted inside over the winter and was about 1.5 feet high. Same with the other bananas.

BTW, does anyone have a very rough estimate as to how large a dwarf orinoco will get before it starts to send up the flag leaf for flowering?

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Here are the bananas now. The one on the far is the same plant as in the picture above. I estimate the tip of the tallest leaf is about 9 feet tall.

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Too bad there isn't a way to edit your posts, or is there? Here is a better picture in from this past spring. The 2 in the middle and the one on the right were planted shortly after the unwrapped basjoo picture was taken.

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All these pictures look great, its interesting to see what others are doing.

Gardenguy,

Now that you are well into this year's growing season, do you feel that the banana plants growing from the pseudostems that were successfully over-wintered are larger and better off?

Also, I see little leaf shredding on your Basjoos as a result of the wind. What position in the garden are they planted?

Thanks
Phil

McDuff -- I am in The Dalles.

Do you think I can overwinter my two new banana plants on a covered deck if I wrap them with something?

Since they are small will they keep growing in the house in bright light over the winter?

d

Hi Phil,
For your first question, yes. Only one banana was overwintered, and it's the one on the far left. The rest were in pots last summer ( as I got a few of them late in the season to put in the ground). The overwintered basjoo is much larger because it spent all last summer in the ground. It grew from a pup the size of a pinky into the 1 foot stump that you see. This summer, it really took off.

Second question, the bananas are in south end of my property.

Ice Cream
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Apple, and our squirrel secuirty system
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Saba from April '06:
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Saba from July '06:
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The yard, from front to back-Basjoo, Basjoo, Ice Cream, Ele Ele, Musa Itinerans, Tall Orinocos:{{gwi:414459}}

Great bunch of pics!!

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First year Musa Basjoo

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:414412}}

I tracked the growth of my Musa Basjoo on my blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Musa Basjoo Pictures

What a wonderful gallery of plants! I agree, it is very neat to see how others garden with bananas.

Porkpi, I really like your banana allee, and the way it frames your boat. Nothing like strolling through the bananas on the way!

I had Musella lasiocarpa bloom for the first time this year. My largest one even had two at the same time!! Here it is from May 29......
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I (the originator of this thread) updated my pictures from 6 weeks ago. Most pictures are the same, bananas are just bigger.

I've also added a couple pictures of a blooming Musa Ornata. The lizard on the leaf is one (or a baby of one) that I released in my yard a couple Springs ago. I'm sure people from the South will find that amusing since they're as plentiful as spiders down there.

There are probably a lot of pictures of no interest to people here. They're mostly of a bamboo fence that I built last Winter. That was actually for posting to another website.

Thanks everyone for posting their pictures. I've enjoyed them all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Updated Photos

Here are some Photos of my Backyard, hope you enjoy them!! The Banana Trees are a whole bigger than they look in the photos! If you look closely on the biggest one you can see some Fruit.Most of the big ones are "Orinocos"...

Frank

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This is a GREAT thread! I notice that other people that live in my zone(7-8 grow plants that actually produce edible fruit).

It appears that Orinco is one - are there other varieties that would produce in my zone?

Since you're in Portland and I'm just a few hundred mile north, I was hoping you could describe how you winter over your bananas? I lost all five of mine last year (my first winter with bananas) and don't want that to happen to these that I bought to replace. The ones in the pots should be easy as I'll bring them into the RV port were they wont get too cold. It's also pretty dark in there so they should go dormant but what about the ones that I've planted. Yours are so beautiful I'd love to get ours like yours. Can you help describe what you do for yours?

Thanks a bunch.......John

John-

In my opinion, the first year of overwintering is the hardest, but if you can get them to survive in tact for one year, they'll be so big the next that it's easy to get them to survive the next, and the next and the next.

When I started out, I used to build cages around every banana, fill them with straw, wrap the cage with shrink wrap, and then use a potted plant tray to cover the top of the cage so that no water could get it. I have lost more bananas to rot than cold weather.

I also put some straw around the base of the cage to keep the ground warm, although I don't know if that actually did any good.

After they survived one year, they grew so big the next year, and the next, and the next, that I now simply cut off the leaves and wrap them in a couple layers of black fleece. The black gets warm and the fleece seems to stay dry. I leave the top few inches exposed so that the plants can grow in the early warm days of spring. I didn't lose any basjoos or sikkimensis to freeze or rot last year. I did lose a couple of less-hardy bananas though

I am going to store the plants in my outside bldg...My crawl space under my house is just too small.

I have a lot of work to do this Fall, but I think it's worth it! That's the only way I can have fruit in my Zone 7,is to dig them up, cut off leaves and put the root ball in a plastic Wal-Mart Bag and then replant them in April. Mine made it through last Winter fine, in an unheated Bldg.!! I have a Freezer and a Refrigerator in my Bldg. so maybe they put off a little heat. It does not have to be dark for the Plants to go Dormant, my went Dormant last Winter, I think the Temperature has more to do with it than the light? Hope this helps some of y'all !!

Good Luck to Everyone,
Frank

Kick Ass Frankallen!!! Very Nice!!

Wow swmcduff - I love that boo fence! Did you make that from scratch or buy a kit?

This is a great thread... there are some very nice plants.

My bananas did not get as big as I thought they would this year, but it's still fun growing them.

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another
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and another
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Gotcha, thanks. I've got two basjoos in the ground. They're only a bit over 2' tall. We dont get super cold around here. Typically only a handful of days with frost but lots of rain. If I snipped the leaves off and just wrapped the stem with a couple layers of black fleese, do you think I'll be okay? When is the best time to do this (before frost or after?).
When do you stop fertilizing? I just use Miracle Grow liquid about once a week.

Thanks so much for the help.........John

jrork, Prime banana growing weather is about 86 for highs and 68 for lows at night. With that being said, do not fertilize at all when you have winter cool weather, esp if the bananas will be covered. Only fertilize when the banana is actively growing. As far as you wrapping the bananas, yes you'll be ok, but after you wrap with the fleese, cover the plant with a plastic covering to keep it dry. Bananas HATE cool, cold weather with moisture.

Here's a link to some pics that I took today here in Knoxville, Tn, zone 7a. I enjoyed everyone elses pictures!

Here's my musa 'Royal Purple' that is just starting to bloom:

Here is a link that might be useful: Bananas in my yard

Here's a few taken last week,Sun burnt leaves on basjoo,106* heat
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Second year on this Orincco,it's mother produced fruit last year,approx,15 ft tall now.
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Walking up the sidewalk to my frontdoor.
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Garden guy,
Okay, so if I wait till they stop growing and it begins to cool off, I wrap them in fleece and then in plastic? Wouldn't that hold in all the moisture and cause rot? Remember, I'm in Washington State where it doesnt get cold but rains constantly.
If somebody has pictures of the wrapped plants, I know I and probably others would appreciate a looksee.

Thanks a bunch......John

jrork, it's hard to say. What is the coldest it gets in the winter for you? If you only get a few nights of frost here and there, then you would be fine without the fleece and plastic. A few nights of frosts will nip the leaves, but should not hurt the stem itself.

Nice pictures. I am new to this and want to plant more. Heres some pics of mine. I don't even know the name of them? if someone can tell me I would appreciate it. These came from one big 6" in diameter stump somebody threw in the dumpster near my office. I pulled it out and planted it. They have produced fruit for the last 3 years and have been in the ground for about 7 years. Last year I dug 13 pups from them. They get cut down to the ground every winter and covered with carpet padding, by august they are over 16' tall.

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I like Frank's idea of wrapping the root balls in Walmart bag and storing in dark room inside. My question is, how safe is it. Without light is it OK? No water? I'm new to Bananas and this sounds like a simple method but I just want to understand it more. Thanks.

Like I said I Just wrap the root ball in a plastic Walmart bag (to keep dirt from falling all over the floor) of my bldg....What happens is the plant will go dormant you give it no water, and as the tempertures go lower,and the plant starts to dry, the Banana Plant will go dormant. My bldg. is not completely dark it has windows so light gets through....Point is, it does not have to be Dark to store the Plants!! The room or Bldg or garage needs to stay above 32 Degrees, you don't want your plants to freeze.

They make space heaters that will come on only if it gets below 32 Degrees!! I bought mine at either Home Depot or Lowes. Hope this helps!!

Good Luck,

Frank

For us who were talking about thermocube, check this link out. It's like the thermocube but allows you to have it turn on at higher temps than 35 degrees which I think is too cold. It's more expensive but not too bad

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermostatically controlled outlet

Musa "Dwarf Lady Finger"

Ladyfinger

Pitigo

Musa Velutina

Dwarf Red

Musa Zebrina

Over 1,000 more photos in the gallery at bananas.org

Here is a link that might be useful: Bananas.org Banana Photo Gallery