Originally Posted by Klee

Hello, I have two small Ae Ae / Musa paradisiaca / Variegated Hawaiian banana plants that are not doing well. They are my favorite plants and don't want to lose them! I got them 16 months ago. One has a trunk of 24" high and the other 14" high. They grow very very slowly and once in a while, they grow a new leaf (never have more than 3 leaves), but one leaf always gets brown before too long and I remove it. Unfortunately, one of the plants only has two leaves now, one alive and one brown, but I don't want to cut it down to one leaf. They get 75% shade from my other types of banana plants here in Soiuth Florida, so I don't think that's the issue. They have black mulch around them right now and I worry that the mulch may have damaged them. I plan to pot at least one of them and want to figure out how to help both of them. Suggestions would be most appreciated! Thank you!