Musa Ornata 'Aurea' x sikkimensis banana

Skimmies up to about 3m - looking a little worse for wear, mostly due to the slugs & snails which appear to get into the growing tip & then munch on the new rollers as they appear - atleast until I find them & then they get a beery death, which is probably too good for them.

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Huge difference in markings on the leaves on the same plant - interesting.

 

My musa sikkimensis is putting some nice growth now

 

I like that @mowgley, my seed grown Sikki that I had a few years ago lost its leaf colouration after a while and turned mostly green.

 

Thx @pete
The first leaves that came out in late spring were green too but this strong sunshine and warmer temps have made a difference on the stripes.
But been giving it special attention with plenty of Water and chicken poo pellets

 

Next year maybe?
A pic from my archives 2007, Sikki flower.

 

Mine did too, but now has colour again. Dunno what the driver is, but mine seem to be some-and-some ...

 

The fast growing baby on mine is significantly more coloured than the main plant's leaves

 

Markings on the musa sikkimensis this morning

 

New leaf unfolding today and the 'pup' is looking stunning, also noticed another two just starting to poke through

 

A view of our patio early this morning, the Sikki hybrid the dominant feature, including its pup which is showing amazing leaf colour

 

Lifted my musa sikkimensis tonight before the winds batter it later. Typical though ran out of compost to pot it up properly. Just fitted into a 30l pot

 

Do you need to? Or is this a "first year or two only" thing? They are moderately root-hardy, and if the pseudostem is wrapped that will survive a mild winter. In a pot, in greenhouse, they are huge (well, "tall" ) when they burst into leaf in the Spring.

My approach is to leave them out, but to grow some seedlings and over winter those as replacements next year if we get a hard winter. Hopefully over time natural selection will leave me with increasing hardy strains, such that I won't have to replace them

(I now buy seedlings rather than growing them from seed, as I have found seed varies from 80% germination (rarely) to 0% (which appears to be more common unless I manage to get fresh seed) so I figured that buying someone's excess seedlings, off eBay, was the most sure-fire & cost-effective route)

 

It's only it's 1st year in the garden this year, last year it was in a pot. Want to be safe than sorry as I don't want to lose this one. Haven't got any back ups
Judging by the state of my basjoo when I got home from work tonight it was a good idea to lift it .
Hopefully it will keep growing in the GH for a while.
My other basjoos are getting wrapped outside

 

Looks like a good idea to me @mowgley .
Those stems dont look nearly strong enough, to me, to survive the winter even if wrapped.

As its not that big, better to be safe than sorry.