Bananaman88

jnstropic,

Sounds like an awesome idea. I've always thought that we banana lovers should somehow band together and do this very thing! I'm a professional horticulturist who has successfully grown the Ae-Ae before when I worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. It grew like a weed for us there and pupped profusely! One of my former co-workers there tells me they unfortunaely lost all of theirs a couple of winters ago.

I am currently living in the Houston, TX area with a climate very similar to Florida (maybe not Southern FL but still plenty humid!). Our typical winter here is about 30 degrees for the low occasionally. I had an Ae-Ae overwinter in the ground here in 2004. I'd love to try some here again if you decide to expand your area of experimentation. I have never been able to bring myself to pay the ridiculous prices that some places sell theirs for and completely agree that we ought to share these wonderful plants if we can or at least if we do sell them, it should be at a reasonable price.

Please let me know if you think my climate is suitable for this worthy project. If not, I wish you great success and hope to be one of the beneficiaries of this project down the line. I truly believe that one day this plant will be more readily available.

Brent