Thursday 23 March 2017

Banana plants - Spring


We took a ride over to Hayle Plants to collect a couple of baby Banana plug plants that I,d bought online , actually I bought them from Plantaholics but I was to collect them from Hayle Plants next door....anyway very excited .. as it is always been closed whenever we,ve tried  to visit .

  Blue sky..we've had some squalls ,hail and thunder , it is still a little blustery , but brightening up now .


  It was a lovely drive ..all the daffodil fields are looking so beautiful right now .


We found the place , its quite close to the Golf Club,where my husband likes to practice on the driving range . I usually sit doing my embroidery in the car while waiting for him , but now I can come and look at the plants and get ideas for the garden .


They are very busy filling up the main huge greenhouse with lots of beautiful plants .
 I  love the succulents ..unfortunately the one I would have liked was not for sale ..but Bess told me they will be bringing more in and maybe they'll have that one .


A couple more photos of this splendid greenhouse ...just give me a deckchair and I could sit here quite happily all day ..lovely and warm ... aaah  .


My two Musa Basjoo Banana babies ,were actually quite big and very healthy looking specimens .

I grew one from seed about twenty years ago , it grew very big and I eventually planted it outside . After three years though it began to dwindle away and last Autumn I decided to dig it up and give it some more intensive care and pampering .


Here it is , it is putting up a new shoot now . I just cant remember which variety of Banana it was . I really would like to have a clump of Bananas in my garden  and Musa Basjoo is the one that does best here in Cornwall  . It is known to be the hardiest one .


 The rest of the day I spent potting these little ones up and tidying up my big old Musa Ensete  maureii red banana  . This is such a beautiful banana plant, but not very hardy , not even here in Cornwall , this one should always be dragged into a shelter zone for the Winter .     ( By the way , I,m talking Cornwall England here , not Cornwall in Canada ...who are having some really cold and wet weather at the moment !  Hi ! Cornwall in Canada ! )


                   Musa Ensete maurelii red banana - before and after its tidy up .
In the Autumn , when I drag it in ,I dont take any of the compost off, I dont disturb the roots at all . I dont cut any of it's leaves off . Some of the outer leaves go crispy and that is fine . I dont water at all through the winter .
 Today I have taken off a few of the crispy leaves , but not all of them , see my picture above . There is a lovely new leaf coming up and beginning to unfurl .
I scraped off some of the old compost on top and refreshed with some multipurpose compost . I ,m thinking about to planting it outside into the ground , but that wont be  for a few weeks yet .Its either that or it should really go into a bigger pot  .
 Here is a slideshow of how I brought it in for the Winter a couple of years ago .



                    I pulled off a couple of those shoots and potted them up .


I also put fresh compost in that time, as the plastic container was much bigger than the original pot .
  Hope the slide show works or I'll have to come back and re-edit this !

3 comments:

  1. Your slide show was most interesting. I believe that Falmouth park has one Banana tree which has been there for years. I have never even thought of growing one!

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  2. Very interesting post . . . and so much fun to visit large green houses in the early spring. It really sets the mood for planting :)

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  3. I've never been to Hayle plants, I will have to check them out

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