View Full Version : My new 'Ae-Ae'!
Bananaman88
04-12-2008, 08:25 PM
Today my wife and I had the pleasure of taking a little drive over to Lake Charles, LA to pick up an 'Ae-Ae' pup from SteveL and his lovely wife. Steve and I have been in contact frequently since I joined this site last summer. He is a great guy and always willing to share his plant knowledge and plants. Today proved no exception as I went home with not only a sweet Ae-Ae pup but a 'Raja Puri', and uranoscopus, and numerous Heliconia starts. Steve, just let me say thanks again. You and your wife were very nice to us and the cajun restaurant you recommended was fabulous. You are welcome at my house anytime! Enjoy the pics everyone! Note the permagrin on my face (that's me in the Hawaiian shirt)!
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=9148&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=9148&ppuser=824)
url=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=9149&ppuser=824]http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=9149&size=1[/url]
Dean W.
04-12-2008, 09:03 PM
Congrats, on your new new Ae-Ae!:bananajoy:
Dean
chumleyrobert
04-12-2008, 10:01 PM
Congratulations on the Ae Ae .. It's abut the same size as my two that went through the winter in the ground here in Plant City , Florida 40 miles E. of Tampa. I have sinse picked up 3 variegated Cavendish (found at Walmart) and they're doing well in the ground also. Robert C.
island cassie
04-12-2008, 10:26 PM
No wonder you are smiling - that is a lovely plant!
Cassie
Bananaman88
04-12-2008, 11:25 PM
Robert,
Are the var. Cavendishes pupping any yet? I wouldn't mind trying one of those sometime if you ever get any pups. Surprised to hear that Wal-Mart had them, though. I've yet to see our Wal-Mart here by me carry any banana plants. Maybe they will some day!
dablo93
04-13-2008, 01:35 AM
congrats on your Ae Ae, its a beautiful musa!!
are you putting him outside >? the whole year or only in summer or so ?
STEELVIPER
04-13-2008, 02:01 AM
Cool. Steve L has helped me with many questions i have had with Heliconias and gingers.
Randy4ut
04-13-2008, 06:39 AM
Brent,
Congrats!!! Nice to finally have a face with both you and Steve. Take great care of the AeAe and keep us posted as to its progress. What kind of heliconias did you tote home?
mskitty38583
04-13-2008, 07:32 AM
lovely little ae ae! congrats!
Steve L
04-13-2008, 07:58 AM
Brent,
Nice to meet you and your wife as well. Hope the plants do well for you.
Steve
Bananaman88
04-13-2008, 09:25 AM
Steve,
The pleasure was all mine. I only wish I could have brought your more plants than I did in exchange!
I still haven't decided for sure if I'm going to grow it in the pot for a while or go ahead and put it in the ground. I'm leaning towards putting it in the ground since it is still spring time and it should have plenty of time to get estblished before winter. I'll have to think about it a bit more.
I already have the 'Rajapuri' and the Heliconia angusta 'Red Christmas' in the ground. The others may stay in pots for a while. Randy, you asked about the other heliconias; others were H. rostrata, H. schiedeana, and H. 'Pedro Ortiz'
Thanks again for everything Steve. I'll take some pics throughout the summer and keep you all updated! :2718:
magicgreen
04-13-2008, 10:05 AM
:2734:Congratulations on your new baby!
Take care of her/him, and please keep us informed of your newbies progress!
Mark Hall
04-13-2008, 12:04 PM
Brent, Welcome to the Ae Ae members club. super looking plant too.
Cohiba
04-13-2008, 01:24 PM
Congratulations! That's a beauty!
Taylor
04-13-2008, 01:36 PM
:woohoonaner:
Bananaman88
04-13-2008, 08:48 PM
Thanks everyone! I'm super stoked! I had one about 4 yrs. ago and accidentally kicked it while mulching my landscape just as it was emerging from winter dormancy. It was only about 4" tall or so. I snapped it off even with the ground and it never came back; just too weak from being dormant all winter. Trust me, I felt like crying. I still cannot thank SteveL enough for setting me up again. I promise I'll do better this time. My wife has already warned me about being clumsy!
CookieCows
04-13-2008, 08:55 PM
Congrats! Sooo beautiful!
Steve L
04-14-2008, 08:37 AM
Steelviper,
The real heliconia and ginger expert, and the person that taught me everything I know, is a member on this forum; the lovely Lilith, better known to me as Regina.
Steve
Bananaman88
04-14-2008, 11:27 AM
Steve,
You're being waaay too modest about your knowledge of heliconias! You're collection was very nice. I'd love to see it about mid-late summer sometime. Maybe we should have a regional Bananas.org mtg. at your place. Isn't that nice of me to ask if we can meet at your place??? I'd be up for doing it at my place sometime too, for that matter if anyone in the area is interested.
southlatropical
04-14-2008, 12:53 PM
Steve,
You're being waaay too modest about your knowledge of heliconias! You're collection was very nice. I'd love to see it about mid-late summer sometime. Maybe we should have a regional Bananas.org mtg. at your place. Isn't that nice of me to ask if we can meet at your place??? I'd be up for doing it at my place sometime too, for that matter if anyone in the area is interested.
Crawfish boil at Steve's house!!:chefnaner: Just kidding. Steve has been a huge help in answering all of my heliconia questions also. Still have'nt made it out there to visit but I'm working on it. Steve, that H. latispatha 'Orange Gyro' I got a while back is starting send up shoots. It looks like it is going to be a strong grower. And it looks like my Z. midnight is trying come back also, but boy is it slow.
Steve L
04-14-2008, 01:13 PM
Crawfish boil sounds great. I've got all the stuff. The Lat. Orange Gyro is supposed to be a fairly cold hardy heliconia. I'm not growing that one. I'm afraid that Zingiber Malaysianum "Midnight" in not going to be a good performer for you. I grew it in the ground for 3 years and each year it came back about half the size until it just disappeared and I had it in a protected spot. I then grew it in a pot and it went totally dormant in my greenhouse; it's an evergreen zingiber and is not supposed to go dormant. It hasn't come back yet in the pot. I need to check it out to see if there is anything left. In 5 years of growing this ginger, I never bloomed it. A nicer zingiber ginger is Z. Collinsii "silver streaks". Hardy in our zone and nice blooms after the first year. A real winner.
Steve
southlatropical
04-14-2008, 01:54 PM
Steve,
If you want to try the Orange Gyro, I have plenty. I may even have an offset of the H. lingulata 'Red Tip Fan by the time I make it out there. The wife decided she wants to go to Jazz Fest in New Orleans instead of the Contraband Days festival in Lake Charles. So it will likely be a while longer before we are in your area.
Lagniappe
04-14-2008, 02:24 PM
Crawfish boil at Steve's house!!:chefnaner: Just kidding. Steve has been a huge help in answering all of my heliconia questions also. Still have'nt made it out there to visit but I'm working on it. Steve, that H. latispatha 'Orange Gyro' I got a while back is starting send up shoots. It looks like it is going to be a strong grower. And it looks like my Z. midnight is trying come back also, but boy is it slow.
A crawfish boil sounds like a great idea for a meet-up !
Great plant Brent! Best of luck to you.
Bananaman88
04-14-2008, 02:34 PM
What do ya think, Steve? Sometime later this year?
Steve L
04-14-2008, 02:42 PM
We need to do it before the end of June; otherwise, we won't be able to get any crawfish. I'll check the calendar. I know the last weekend of May is out and so is the last weekend of June.
Steve
chumleyrobert
04-14-2008, 03:57 PM
Hey, if either of you want to do some trading, let me know. I think I have Curcuma "Roscoianna" and maybe others in the Zingerberacea family. and in addition to that I have many aroids, philos,anthuriums, yucca, agaves, bananas, furcraea, aloes, and many, many cycads . Many of these items are unusual and I have "Hybrids". Thanks, Robert Chumley chumleycycads.c
southlatropical
04-14-2008, 06:12 PM
Robert,
I would be very interested in a cycad or two and maybe some other stuff. Here is a link to my trade list on Gardenweb.
southlatropical's GardenWeb Exchange Page (http://members.gardenweb.com/members/exch/southlatropical)
Many of the plants on that list will not be available until later this year. But if you see something you like just let me know. What cycads would you recommend for zone 9? I have some sagos and would like something with a different look.
Bananaman88
04-14-2008, 08:04 PM
Steve,
I know I have family coming in to town from May 21-28. Hopefully I could make any other time unless my new job has me working weekends (I know it will require some). This will be a lot of fun if we can make it happen! Let me know what you need and I'll be glad to help!
Bananaman88
04-15-2008, 07:52 PM
Alright, I got my new baby in the ground today. I had to move some 'Bengal Tiger' cannas to a different spot in the landscape so I would have room for the 'Ae-Ae'. I dug about a 2' diameter hole, dumped in some leaves left over from last year, added some Miracle Grow garden soil, some old potting soil from 2 hanging baskets I was getting rid of, and about 1/2 gallon of granular organic fetilizer, mixed it all together well and planted the Ae-Ae right in the middle and watered it in. It will get part sun-part shade in this location. Hopefully it will do well. The worst part is it will have to compete with a nearby maple and my neighbors Ilex opacas that are right on the other side of the fence. I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow and update it occasionally.
damaclese
04-15-2008, 09:09 PM
Hey, if either of you want to do some trading, let me know. I think I have Curcuma "Roscoianna" and maybe others in the Zingerberacea family. and in addition to that I have many aroids, philos,anthuriums, yucca, agaves, bananas, furcraea, aloes, and many, many cycads . Many of these items are unusual and I have "Hybrids". Thanks, Robert Chumley chumleycycads.c
Robert i see frome your profill that u have a AeAe
would u hapin to have any pups u would like to sell i realy dont have any thing to trad as most my gardin is rather new new house hehehe
devildog805
04-16-2008, 03:35 AM
Congrats, nice looking AE-AE.
Bananaman88
05-11-2008, 10:28 AM
Here's an update on the growth of my Ae-Ae.
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=9547&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=9547&ppuser=824)
mskitty38583
05-11-2008, 11:37 AM
when you get tired of looking at those beautiful, graceful,elegant, lovely leaves....my shipping addy is........lol! it is a beautiful tree. congrats and yahoo!:2691:
Dean W.
05-11-2008, 12:06 PM
Nice!:416:
musa_monkey
05-11-2008, 12:11 PM
wow outstanding pup. best of luck with it
Bananaman88
05-12-2008, 06:28 AM
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'm doing my best with it. I've sited it in a spot where it gets some sun/some shade, but it seems to be getting more sun during the hottest part of the day than I had planned. Hopefully it will adjust and do well.
harveyc
05-12-2008, 10:47 AM
Congrats, Brent, it's looking nice. Can you explain your zone 9 climate a bit, please. What were your nightly lows when you planted it in the ground and dayly highs? What kind of temperatures do you have now?
I've been considering putting one of my pups in the ground (one is large and doing very nicely in my greenhouse). Over the past few days my nightly lows have been down to 52F and highs up 84F but our humidity is low (down to 20%) and we get quite a few dry winds this time of year. I may be putting in some misters/foggers and contstruct a screen house or something like that to create both partial shade and protect from winds. I'm just a little too chicken to put it out in the ground right now!!!
Bananaman88
05-12-2008, 11:58 AM
[QUOTE=harveyc;37156]Congrats, Brent, it's looking nice. Can you explain your zone 9 climate a bit, please. What were your nightly lows when you planted it in the ground and dayly highs? What kind of temperatures do you have now?
Harvey,
Thanks for the questions. I planted my Ae-Ae in the ground just a few days after receiving it (see first post of this thread) so it's been in the ground for between 3 and 4 wks. now. Temps back then were still getting down in the mid-40's for the lows at time, but mostly in the 50's. Highs were in the mid-70's but have since graduated to mid-high 80's with a few low 90's thrown in already. Our humidity here in Southeast TX is always high unless we've just had a cold front come through. It's nothing to wake up in the morning and have over 80% humidity, and that's year round. Even when fronts do go through we are so close to the coast that they often back up on us as a warm front a day or two later and bring the humidity right back up. Temps this week are supposed to be in the the mid-80's for highs.
Hope this helps you!
harveyc
05-12-2008, 12:04 PM
Thanks, Brent. I know you have that "wet" kind of heat down there and you can have it! How low does your humidity get during the hottest part of the day?
By the way, I'm glad I didn't plant my Ae Ae out a month ago even though we were having some nice spring days since we had some really late frost this year that damaged many crops. I didn't have frost here in April but did get down to 38F or so but some nearby areas had frost. My greenhouse Ae Ae is putting out a new leaf every 7-10 days right now. It doesn't get below 60F in my greenhouse and the humidity stays a bit higher.
Bananaman88
05-12-2008, 12:10 PM
I'm not sure what the humidity gets down to during the day. Early in the morning and over night is the worst, but suffice it to say that it doesn't drop enough to make it feel much better during the hottest part of the year. From June-early Oct, Houston is not a very fun place to be...unless you're a banana or banana nut!
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