Bananas you can grow
John Grimshaw (Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:33:30 PST)

Jim Waddick asked: "So Shirley and John, have you any banana experiences to
share?"

Not much of interest: Musa basjoo has not survived here in the Cotswolds,
but is fine at my parents' home at Maidenhead in the Thames Valley, and they
have neighbours with two big clumps that regularly produce inflorescences.
Musella is not hardy in the UK without excessive wrapping etc.

Apropos of Musa being a geophyte, which would normally be expected to have
an underground dormant phase, I would say that this pushes the boundaries of
the definition a bit, as in natural situations they are effectively
evergreen and ever-growing. Obviously some of the harder ones can survive
being defoliated by frost, but does this qualify them as geophytes? When I
was last in Tanzania (2009) my area was very hard-hit by a long drought and
established banana clumps were reduced to bare 'poles' with perhaps a few
tatty greenish leaves from the centre. I've no doubt that the clumps
survived, however, and are probably bearing now, so in climatic emergencies
the geophytic back-up plan works, but it's not the normal form of growth for
Musaceae.

John Grimshaw

Visit John Grimshaw's Garden Diary
http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/

Dr. John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL53 9NP

Tel. 01242 870567

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Waddick" <jwaddick@kc.rr.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Bananas you can grow

I am trying to buy a copy of "Bananas you can grow" by James Waddick
and Glenn Stokes. I think James is a member of PBS.

Dear Shirley,
Finally a topic I can speak on with some expertise.

Please send me a private email to jwaddick@kc.rr.com and I
can help you locate a cheaper copy.

When the book was published one reviewer (from the
Smithonian, no less) said it was "the best book available on growing
bananas.". Although humbled by his comments, this is a very small
competition and at the time was the ONLY book on the topic. True,
but....

Bananas, by the way, are quite suited to this forum as large
geophytes. My M. basjoo has been through a number of hard freezes and
the grove is in the process of dying down and going dormant for
winter. I have had a growing expanding grove here in the ground for a
decade and more. I'll soon add a thick layer of leaf mulch to protect
the underground rhizomes from temps down to -12 F (last year's low).
Once warm weather returns I can get 20 feet of spectacular tropical
growth in the summer season. It gives me warm thoughts just
contemplating it as the snow prospects are building by the day.

So while we are at it, does any one grow 'Musa 'Mekong Giant'
in a cold climate with success.

So Shirley and John, have any banana experiences to share?

Best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +

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