Bananas

joolz - your heating is probably giving them a higher temperature than mine. My thermostat is set at 12C, day and night - but in practice its closer to 10C. Maurelii is happy at that temperature, but my velutina and Dwarf Cavendish are not happy at all - though hopefully still just alive.

 

Im currently trying to germinate British Musa basjoo produced seeds (thats correct) if it happens it could be a big thing! I will have to find out the provenance of the plants, as if they're from cultivated stock (not wild), then this is very very big deal! If they're wild still really cool, in an era when commercially sold Musa basjoo is basically all cloned. Fingers crossed they sprout.

 

Fingers crossed Stephen.

I left my 3 or 4 year old Musa Basjoo out over the winter, and it seems to have survived with the pseudo stem still intact. However it was a very mild winter.

 

For the second year in succession, unbelievably, my Ensete maurelii has survived in the ground taking a couple of -6/7cs when less tender plants have either died or suffered damage. I don't need the smaller spare one in the greenhouse which was bought to replace it.
I didn't even wrap it, just folded the dying brown leaves over the top last November.

 

Very Impressive @strongylodon 2 out of the 4 I lifted are growing now. The other 2 were rotten even though I lifted and hung them upside down for a week. They've now been chopped to the base and see I've they sprout babies

 

That's amazing Strongy, and its looking really healthy now.

I suspect that it isn't just the lows themselves, but the time spend below zero even if its not far below. My lowest temperature here, in Yorkshire, was a short period down to -5C and then nothing below -1C, which sounds mild. But I consumed a bit more electricity than last year heating my conservatory to the same temperature. So I think the low temperatures were more sustained, even though the extremes were less than last year.

 

Just an update on the received wisdom that Ensete v. maurelii is monocarpic.......No it isn't!
I just found this out after digging up my 5 year old that flowered last summer. I wish I'd left it alone now Will try potting up some chunks of the basal plate with roots, but there's going to be a huge banana-shaped hole in the border and my life this summer.....

 

I'm sorry if I was the one that led you to that.

 

Noooo....you weren't the only one, @pete I should have known better than to dig it up as it was still firm when I unwrapped it. You live and learn.....

 

Well yes, I guess Monocarpic is not the best description.

I think we all know they are capable of growing suckers but not until the top growth is annihilated, either by chopping up the main root or in your case flowering terminally.

I'm still amazed you get it to survive the winter without rotting.

I'm wondering if digging it up is not such a bad idea anyway, left to it's own devises it would probably create a clump of stems.
This way to can pot them, or transplant them, as individual stemmed plants.

 

I'm amazed too Despite my trying to improve the claggy clay, it was in boggy ground all winter with just a thick mulch of old leaves and an overcoat of multi-layer insulation. It was a gamble unwrapping it in early Spring, but once the sun does come out here, it's strong so it was gamble or end up with cooked banana.
I still don't believe that it 'flowered terminally' you know. If I'd treated it as I usually did, I'm sure it would have pushed up new leaves from the heart. The pseudostem , base and roots were all sound.
I'll let you know what happens with the replacement if I can get hold of one

 

Don't talk about what you did with the body where everyone can see

 

Oups! I won't mention the bonfire heap then.........

 

It's sound really good

 

I have just started a spring clean of my conservatory. Apart from the Musa basjoo on the right, I have now propagated a dozen Ensete Maurelii - that was phase 1. Phase 2 is to work out what to do with them now.