Edisto Beach is a barrier island about an hour south of Charleston. The wife and drove down today to drop off a few plants and grab a Saba pup from the family beach house.
I have been watching this matt for a few years now and finally had a camera.
As we were looking at over 8 blooms hidden amonst the stems, a fella drove up who owned the fresh seafood place next door. He said it was his mom's house and that she used to tend the bananas and cut them every year and wrap them. She was too old for all of than now and had not done that for the past 5-6 seasons.
She planted them nearly 30 years ago he said. He said they always had fruit. My guess is that they are orinocos. However the leaves on some of them were as large at those on a Saba, easily 8-9 feet long
Some had p-stems of fruit and had even fallen over.
I am not sure how they do so well without gallons of water and fertilizer. I guess just years of leaf litter have created a nutritious soil base. They are on the south eastern side of the house. Across the street is a golf course with water hazards. On the other side of the house is a Tidal creek and probably 5-15 miles of tidal salt marsh. The marsh and water hazards add warmth and the house is good protection.
It appears as if this a great microclimate for bananas!!!