Your yard is looking as awesome as always! Still trying to get my Ensete to grow to half the size of yours.
Thanks for sharing!
-Alex

Where are you located, and what do you do with them in winter?

{{gwi:5901}}

Thanks, Alex. Bill, I'm in northern Utah near Logan. After a killing frost (usually about the end of September or first week in October if I'm lucky) I chop them off to a 4-6' stump, dig them up and repot them in 15 gallon nursery pots, and stick them in an unlit unheated basement room. They eventually go dormant and stay dormant until Spring. I only water them once during winter. They retain their water quite well. Once I bring them out into the light and heat, they start growing again. Then I repot them out into my yard in May. I've done this for at least 10 years. It works every year! And they get bigger every year. What awesome plants! They love lots of water and fertilizer. I give them plain old ammonium sulfate and milorganite.

I've planted one, in spring. It is only about 4 ft so far. There isn't much more time for it to get a lot bigger. Has anyone mulched a lot and wrapped with burlap or some other cloth, or porotected and didn't dig up the purple ensete banana? I must add did you succeed with this in zone 6 or colder?

Woww!!! love itt

I guess I will have to uproot it, it is supposed to be zone 8 hardy, my zone 6 will kill it.

Poaky, I am in zone 6 Illinois Have been covering our banana clump for the last 4 years. First we cut them back to 3' slip insulation around them loosely enclose all with fence taller than the bananas. Continue adding insulation. tarp it. Works for Us. Paula

Paulah-gardener, Are the bananas you cover Musa basjoo? Or are they Ensete or other zone 8 ish nanners? i can grow musa Basjoo easily in zone 6 Pa. If you are growing Ensete or other zone 7 or 8 hardy bananas without digging them up, I am interested. Sorry, but the Musa Basjoo are easily grown in zone 6 with no protection. So come on, Ensete banana growers, who have protected them (zone 8) in the ground, tell me how you protected them over harsh winter low temperatures.

Okay, So, Paulah-gardener, maybe you mean the Ensete? I guess you haven't seen this question? I love the no dig option.

This year's pics of the same flower bed.

I will be trying another Ensete this season, but, will definately be digging up in fall. I just don't have any 15 gallon nursery pots, I am thinking 5 gallon buckets will be okay, if not where would I get a 15 gallon nursery pot? I know fall is a long ways off, thank goodness!

I now have 8 Ensete bananas that have survived the winter in my basement. My bananas are way to big to fit in a 5 gallon pot. They barely fit in the 15 gallon pots! I obtained my 15 gallon pots from a plant nursery in the area. Good luck on locating some. If yours fit in a 5 gallon pot, great! As they get bigger, they will definitely outgrown the 5 gallon pots.

I may have to buy some of them online. I see big pots at the usual big box stores, but, who knows if they're big enough. I am thinking that the ones I have seen at Rural King should be big enough, and just $9.99 or something like that are okay. They are a bit smaller than a whiskey barrel, but made of plastic. They are nice thick double walled plastic, and sturdy. I have about 5 steps going into the basement, so it needs to be rigid enough to survive being on a dolly and a few jolts and bangs etc. At least the medium will be dry, so not heavy. I will likely not be saving all the babies, if mine produces babies. That must be how you got 8 of them Kevin? I'll try and stick to 1 maybe 2. I'll have to look at how many gallons my giant plastic whiskey barrel is, but it looks like at least 3, 5 gallon buckets worth of soil could fit in it. Later.

Since Ensete does not sucker, all of mine have been purchased through a local nursery as small plants. Your idea for pots sound good. As long as the Ensete will fit in the pot, you're good! You don't need a deep pot since Ensete roots are quite shallow. Good luck!

Okay, I think 1 Ensete may be enough, but I may change my mind later. I will likely be digging up my Pineapple lily corm/bulb/root also, and I may not want too many things to have to dig up in fall. I have Cannas too, but, someone told me that they just cover theirs with mulch. It may have been you who told me that.....