I covered my bananas last year very diligently, especially on the south side of the house by the pool. I put real fiberglass insulation around a really big Basjoo and around others I put liberal layers of burlap and other forms of insulation used for water heaters etc.
However on the northern side of the house, fully exposed to the northerly wind, I only wrapped a few layers of frost cloth from Home Depot around my Basjoo, which btw was way smaller (diameter wise) than the one on the south side by the pool.
Strangely enough the only p-stem that made it through the winter was the one exposed to the north with a few layers of frost cloth. The whole p-stem survived and it even flowered in October. Unfortunately the record summer made everything pretty much stop growing in July August otherwise I think it would have flowered earlier.
Anyway, my point is that I never expected a few layers of frost cloth to be so effective. For this winter I have stocked up on frost cloth to use on the south side as well for my Ice creams that I plan to leave in the ground.
Have anyone else noticed similar effectiveness from frost cloth or was this a surprise for you as it was for me?
The question marks I have are the following two bananas :
Orinoco (dwarf) and
Saba
Will they have any chance of surviving (p-stem I mean) with the same method? I only have one of each even if they are of decent size but not so big I cant get them into the garage if need be.
I also have 6 Ice creams and here I plan to dig up 3 to store in the garage and keep 3 in the ground with several layers of frost cloth around them. Cover both bases.
What would you advice me on the Orinoco and the Saba?
I really don't expect the Saba to bloom here in north Texas but it would be nice to see if it can!
Any advice?
Thanks
/Peter