Any one moved the bananas out yet?

I`ve just been out and cutted the basjoo leaves as they start to push against the ceiling

I`ve learned another thing this year , do never cut all the leaves off the bananas , all the one I`ve got growing at the moment are the one Ive left few leaves on , I think the sunlight trigged them to growing back , while the one without leaves didn`t move at all....

so I had to do something drustick and cut all the outside of the plants , untill I could hit the fresh leave inside and hoping that the sunshine will trig the plant to wake up.

I`ve done this little snow banana last week and it`s now awake .

 

Hi love your garden Jwk All my bananas will go out beginning of May. The ensettes are growing really well in the conservatory and my mussa are just starting now. The way I look at it, the longer they stay in where it is warm, the bigger they will get. Putting them outside early when the weather is not very warm will just slow them down.

 

There's a few that you can grow here, and they will add a tropical / exotic effect to your garden, plus they grow like blue-blazes so are very rewarding in that sense.

Musa Basjoo is hardy, it comes from the North island (Hokaido) of Japan. Most Winters the pseudostem will be killed by cold but it will sprout again from the roots, and should make about 10' before the Autumn frosts come. Some people wrap the pseudostem in straw etc. over-winter, and if you manage to keep it alive then they will be even taller the following summer, and may flower. Personally I find the leaves rather narrow and not as dramatic as some of the others. Sterile, so only grown from offsets.

Musa sikkimensis comes from the Himalayas so it can handle cold in the winter, but it is also very dry there, so it struggles with our cold AND wet winters. Needs protection in the Winter. I prefer this, because it has wide paddle-shaped leaves. Can be grown from seed - the ones I sowed in Spring 2011 were 6' tall by the end of the year!

Ensete from Ethiopia. During their dry season they lift them, cut off all roots and leaves, and store the "trunk" dry. Many people here store them "dry" in a loft or garage like that. This variety is available in the "sheds" around May/June time. They grow so fast that it is viable to treat them as Annuals, if storing them is not possible. But a plant that you can store overwinter will be a monster when it is 3 or 4 years old The bog standard Ensete ventricosum is green, and can be grown from seed, but there are two purple leaved varieties E. maurelii and E. montbeliardii which are very dramatic. Of these E. montbeliardii is much more upright, and therefore "taller" for a given length of pseudostem, and thus harder to over winter as it's new leaves will be hitting the roof long before a similar sized E. maurelii plant will be


This was a 1L plant in May, picture taken in October

Some more pictures on my Blog: http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/exotic-garden/3/#Gallery

 

P.S. I put all my tender plants out a couple of days ago. Night Min. here forecast for 10C (well, probably 8C) all week, so they went out and will stay out - until we get another frost forecast. Much easier than out-and-back-in-again which is necessary if it is colder at night.