Hardy banana plant

Hi all,

I have just watched fridays episode of Gardeners World. There was a section where Joe did his usual garden design, this episode was about tropical gardening. I really liked the look of the hardy banana plant, i already have a cordyline and i think they would look great together with a few smaller plants under and around them.

Does anyone on here have a hardy banana plant? If so, do you happen to have a picture? Do you keep it outside all year? how tall does it get? and... how much did it roughly cost?

If anyone could help i would be very grateful!

Cheers in advance

 

Hi Graig we all do have one .
I do overwinter mine for the simple reason that it will look big and big every year
but you can leave it outdoor ,will die to the roots and come back in spring , or overwinter the old way with hay bale .

those are mine overwintered

 

Musa basjoo i think is hardy well im hoping mine comes back

 

Hi

Musa Bajoo is the one I grow it cost me £4.99 about 6 years ago and was delivered by the post man and was about 6 inches high !! its too cold here to keep outside without protection over the winter the one I have now I grow in huge pot gets to about 8 feet , I have grown before outside in the border that one in a good summer would get to about 15 / 20 feet easily no photos sorry but very free draining soil and protected by a very large hedge as if the wind gets the leaves it shreds them does look unsightly


Spruce

 

so if i leave it outside all year round and it dies back, it will only ever reach a certain height each year. If i bring it indoor it will get gradually bigger each year? Am i on the right lines?

thanks for the pic by the way!

 

Presumably Musa basjoo.
Not that hardy since the onset of the harder winters, but still possible outside all year if you give them winter protection.
They are not that expensive, £10 should buy a reasonable sized one, might take a couple of years or so to get this big though.

 

wow, impressive

whats the general way to protect these when left outside during the winter?

 

I used to use a bale of barley straw cut it down to 5 feet and then all the straw piled on the whole plant then chicken wire to keep it all in the a good layer of bubble wrap it survived for years and was too big to transplant when I moved

Spruce

 

Mine is on its 1st winter,no protection really i just put scaffolding boards around the base to maybe protect the root,it was only 2/3ft to begin with and with all this snow now i dont hold out much hope for it

 

hmmmm definately food for thought. I had already planned to plant a purple cordyline next to my Australian cordyline. After seeing GW, it got me thinking of adding a banana plant inbetween with maybe some canna around all three of them. This idea will take up a massive chunk of my garden though. Going to have to seriously think about it

thank you all for your replies!!!

 

During the milder winters I was getting away without protecting mine, but since the winter of 2009, its been much more difficult.

Covering with straw is a good way of doing it, keeping the straw relatively dry can be a problem
I have a few plants in pots now but the ones in my picture are long gone, that was back in 2007, I kind of moved on, as you do.

Might plant one out this year and see how it goes next winter.

 

whats that plant in the bottom right corner Pete with the redish leaves?

 

Craig, its Ensete maurelii, a banana relative, but less hardy than Musa basjoo.

It can however be overwintered if you are prepared to dig it up each autumn and store it dry and cool.

 

joolz I think it should re-shoot, next winter buy a bag of bark and use the whole bag to cover the root area around the plant , there is a Musa in the park as I walk into town it never gets any protection and it survived the winters since I have been working in that building and thats 7 years but it grows back every spring looks a bit tatty now though !!!

Spruce

 

How hardy are musa sikkimensis pete??
Love your echium on that pic its huge
Thanks x