Banana Plant

My Mother in Law has a Banana Plant which has produced a large bud,which looks as though it has 2" bananas growing at the base ,she wanted to know if they are bananas how does she look after it

 

Hi Blue , could you take a pic with the bud on so we can determine if its a bud or a leaf please.

 

Blue, is it outside growing or pot grown and brought in for the winter?

 

Hi Pete thanks for message it is an outside plant she has 3of them in her garden but it is only one that has what she thinks are bananas.

 

I think It must be Musa Basjoo then, the Japanese banana, they do flower after a few years but it means the end for that particular stem, the others around the outside of it will continue to grow.
Dont expect to be eating too many bananas later this year, I'm not sure they are paticually edable on that plant, and to get them to mature I would think you would need protection in the autumn.
Banana Man, might be able to help you out with some more info, he's not been around much lately.

 

My Basjoos look like this in flower, hope it helps.

 

:D

 

That's the sad thing about Bananas, you nurture them for ages, they flower and then die!!! But the baby ones growing around the base usually take over.

Our local newspaper did a huge spread on a lady recently whose outside Banana flowered - caused quite a stir !!!!