Originally Posted by StarostkaD

Thanks! Glad they look healthy to you - it is so hard to tell. Winter plan is to redesign the sprinkler system to take better care of them. Someone mentioned chicken poo as a good fertlizer and I laughed but googled it and it seems true.

I have many questions and if someone has a good book or site to suggest, I welcome that. Among questions:

Can anyone tell what type they are (I will post that in the identify board too)?
Should I cut them back sometime soon?
Should I be weeding out the shooters and only allowing some?
We don't have many hard freezes here, but if we do, do I need to protect them at all?

Thanks for the welcome and sharing knowledge. We love this back yard and I want to maintain its beauty (meh - a few changes to the accompanying plants). We also want to actually taste our bananas someday!