Good news update. I met with a HOA board member at my home a few days ago, to have a conversation. I asked him if he could please explain a bit more the thinking behind the letter demanding I remove my bananas. since they'd been there over a year already. He told me he didn't know who had made the complaint, had received a copy of the letter but had not looked into it and just assumed it was my closest neighbor.
Thankfully, I had spoken with the neighbor the previous evening and that neighbor told me how nice the tropical garden looks with the bananas.
The Board guy seemd glad to hear the neighbor was okay with the banana plants and noted that these complaints invariably arise during "Snowbird season" (January thru April) and since it was not the neighbor then this was most likely a winter tourist.
The basis of the removal letter was that I had planted bananas "trees" whereas no trees were specified in my landscape project. I told him that bananas are not trees but "herbaceous stalks" that are cut down after bearing fruit. He asked how long they grow and I said about 15 months including fruiting. I then handed him a printout on banana morphology I found at promusa.org.
He then asked to visit the garden, saying he had not checked out my landscaping since approval in 2015. He checked that the bananas did not block anyone’s view (we're on the intracoastal waterway so view is king) and were not taller than other trees around. I had him touch/squeeze the fruiting banana plant pseudo stem so he could feel it was not a tree trunk (I'm talking laymen here, hands on).
He was surprised at the stalk being full of water. He proceeded to take pictures and looked around, noting that my closest neighbor has a permanent tree at least as tall as my bananas, not on any project...
He concluded I don't have to remove the bananas because they are not permanent and are not trees anyway. He said he would talk to the rest of the board, and told me I didn't need to remove anything, that the matter was closed.
He requested I keep them reproducing stems towards the middle of my landscape bed so as to avoid any encroachement. Easy peasy!
It was so relieved and happy to hear that. The whole thing had really put me in a funk. Not only is it fascinating to watch bananas grow and bear fruit, they lend lovely tropical shade to my veranda windows and make a wonderful rustling sound in the breeze.
