update on the Musa Aeae bunch that flowered in February 2018-it survived!!!! This was very unexpected, the fingers got burnt on the "sunny side" (not very visible in the pic) but it was just on the exterior...I thought they were gonners! To recap, we had an abnormal heat wave here in the San Francisco Bay Area in February 2018, which forced this plant to bloom. Afterwards, we had 2+ months of cold, rainy weather (lows in the 30's,40's, highs in the 50's) with a few warm days sprinkled in. No idea how this thing survived: the cold weather "burnt" most of the leaves away, and now there are 3 stubs with barely any solar panel action left! However, somehow, the fingers keep filling in and it looks like they will eventually reach maturity!
Photo taken 6/18/18
And this pic below is a little late for the show, but FHIA-1 American Goldfinger bunch forming. I have 6 bunches of american goldfinger developing right now on 2 Mats, but the leaves on many of these p-stems are pretty shot from the cold. This variant seem less cold hardy than dwarf brazilian and raja puri, but it could be that the shorter varieties don't get as damaged since the wall they are planted next to protect them better. The tallest pstem of FHIA-1 American Goldfinger seems to be about 16' high, so many of its "limbs" are taller than the wall and therefore exposed to zero winter protection:
Another American goldfinger FHIA-1 bunch, this one bloomed mid October of 2017 and is probably a month away from maturity (hopefully!). The leaves on this p-stem are mostly brown from the cold, but there's probably enough left to finish the job:
