Hi DebCA
I am also living in zone 9a and some of the bananas said to be hard for zone 9 are probably hard in zone 9b but in my experience not in my zone
(I killed a couple of them) :2687:
I protect my plants until they have several steams and are big enough and this is usually the second year after planting them in my garden. I mainly grow them from seed and I plant them always late in spring when they are about 8-10 month old but it depend on how fast they grew. The species/varieties I have now planted in my garden are
M. basjoo (regular)
M. basjoo ‘Sakhalin’(In my experience no hardier then the regular form but more robust in shape)
M. sikkimensis (regular)
M. nagensium ‘Florale Noir’
And with steam protection for this year
M. sikkimensis ‘Red Tiger’
M. yunnanesis
M. cheesmani
I still have several Banana species in pots that I will probably plant next year outdoor (If I can found place in my garden
)
I tried in the past several edible bananas (
Rajapuri, Orinoco, Saba, Goldfinger ..) but with bad result. Only
Orinoco survived a heavy frost we had but I had to plant it into a pot fir recovering it, and bring it inside during winter, so I decide to try with ornamental ones with better results until now.
I wish you Good luck with yours ¡¡