bigdog

Here is my Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis (I hope they rename it something easier to pronounce and spell!)(Thanks, Eric!). I just brought it home from the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. The winds have beaten up the greenhouse-grown leaves up a bit, as you can see. This was formerly known as Musa itinerans var. gigantea (wish it still was known as this...), and is supposed to grow 40 feet tall in the wild. It is also supposed to be pretty cold-hardy, and tolerant of water-logged soils. This sounds like a good banana for the Southeast, given our wet winters. Just how cold-hardy it turns out to be remains to be seen. This was a pup, dug over 6 feet away from the mother pseudostem.



Pseudostem closeup:



My camera was fixed yesterday (really nothing wrong with it, I had just royally screwed up the settings!), so I can take more pics if anyone wants to see leaf closeups or anything. The thing I wonder about is how big of a bed should I dig?? If pups are going to come up 6 feet away, then...pretty big!