Bananas.org - View Single Post - New to "Bananas" & a sad tale w/ a happy ending

jpelinga · 11-27-2007, 01:24 AM

Hello everyone, Ciao tutti!
My story is this. I live in Seattle in a small 3 building community, now for 5 years. We have a 20 y.o. Basjoo, planted by my neighbor Roger, living in the garden. 3 years ago, my Basjoo was the first cut from the parent plant. It lived in Roger & Joe's apartment, (Roger is known as the "mad scientist" in our little place), for 1 year then was moved to a homemade greenhouse in my building where it's been for 2 years.

In October we made the decision to bring it out for the winter as the greenhouse was being disassembled, (new owners). It was 17' w/ 5 beautiful leaves, I supported it on 2 sides w/ bamboo stalks as tall as the leaves and protected it w/ a sheath of plastic from the bottom of the pot to the very top. It was good to go for a Seattle winter. I had it at my back steps for 1 week when a contractor w/ 3 of his employees working on our building were seen putting onto a truck and taking it away.

A really long story short, I called the police, it took 3 weeks and 2 days to get it home after numerous calls to this contractor from the detective assigned to my case. A confrontation between the detective and this guy at my apartment building finally convinced him that he would be prosecuted for stealing the banana plant, therefore it came home.

It was very damaged but not enough to kill it. It had stab wounds and bruising on the stalk and was hacked off at the top of the stalk. It came home 7' tall and in bad shape. I got into my apartment, Roger examined it, he said it would be ok. The rootball and lower stalk were not damaged. After 1 1/2 weeks it started to grow. Today I and my colleages from work moved it to my work building w/ lots of windows and a 20'+ high ceiling where it will spend the winter.

I can't be happier and in case anyone is interested, the contractors name is Blair Steel, his business name is Showcase Exteriors out of Marysville, WA.

I found this site during my research to get my basjoo back, I'm grateful for it and I'm looking forward to bringing it home in the spring for planting. This is a great site, nice to meet you all and I'll look forward to hearing from you...JP

11-27-2007, 01:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
jpelinga Location: seattle,wa Zone: 8a Name: jana Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1 BananaBucks : 5,724 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 0 Times Was Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times	New to "Bananas" & a sad tale w/ a happy ending Hello everyone, Ciao tutti! My story is this. I live in Seattle in a small 3 building community, now for 5 years. We have a 20 y.o. Basjoo, planted by my neighbor Roger, living in the garden. 3 years ago, my Basjoo was the first cut from the parent plant. It lived in Roger & Joe's apartment, (Roger is known as the "mad scientist" in our little place), for 1 year then was moved to a homemade greenhouse in my building where it's been for 2 years. In October we made the decision to bring it out for the winter as the greenhouse was being disassembled, (new owners). It was 17' w/ 5 beautiful leaves, I supported it on 2 sides w/ bamboo stalks as tall as the leaves and protected it w/ a sheath of plastic from the bottom of the pot to the very top. It was good to go for a Seattle winter. I had it at my back steps for 1 week when a contractor w/ 3 of his employees working on our building were seen putting onto a truck and taking it away. A really long story short, I called the police, it took 3 weeks and 2 days to get it home after numerous calls to this contractor from the detective assigned to my case. A confrontation between the detective and this guy at my apartment building finally convinced him that he would be prosecuted for stealing the banana plant, therefore it came home. It was very damaged but not enough to kill it. It had stab wounds and bruising on the stalk and was hacked off at the top of the stalk. It came home 7' tall and in bad shape. I got into my apartment, Roger examined it, he said it would be ok. The rootball and lower stalk were not damaged. After 1 1/2 weeks it started to grow. Today I and my colleages from work moved it to my work building w/ lots of windows and a 20'+ high ceiling where it will spend the winter. I can't be happier and in case anyone is interested, the contractors name is Blair Steel, his business name is Showcase Exteriors out of Marysville, WA. I found this site during my research to get my basjoo back, I'm grateful for it and I'm looking forward to bringing it home in the spring for planting. This is a great site, nice to meet you all and I'll look forward to hearing from you...JP