coast crab

Hi Everyone.

Glad to be here! I’m Russell Coker in Mobile, Alabama.

I grew up in Ft. Walton Bch., Florida, always interested in plants of just about any kind. When I was 12, my mother took me to a meeting of the local bonsai club and these folks became a second family to me. As I finished high school, all I wanted to do was study bonsai - in Japan. After my first year of local college, two of my “other mothers” went on a bonsai tour of Japan. There they met a wealthy publisher and bonsai master who was willing to allow me to travel to Japan to study with his company. So in 1985 at nineteen years old I moved to Kanuma, Japan. I spent the next three years there way out in a mountain valley, the only white kid for miles, struggling through language and cultural barriers, flying home for Christmas. Wouldn’t trade it for the world!

After Japan it was back to college, this time at Mississippi State to get my degree in Landscape Architecture. I had figured that I’d be with people interested in plants like me, but I was surprised to learn that I was the class “plant nerd”. I always figured I’d end up in Mobile because it always felt like “home”. I was lucky to find a small design/build company specializing in garden design and have been here ever since graduating in 1992. Time and work don’t permit me to travel much for bonsai anymore, but I’m active with the Mobile bonsai club and of course maintain my own collection. I did take three of my bonsai to New Orleans to be part of the display for the Bonsai Clubs International Convention in June, 2009. Currently I’m active with the Mobile Botanical Gardens serving on the Horticultural Board as well as redesigning the old Founders/Fragrance and Texture Garden, and designing the new Palm/Temperate Garden. I’m also on the selection committee for the upcoming fall plant sale in October - once a plant nerd, always a plant nerd.

Honestly, I reconnected with bananas by cruising plants on ebay. Through ebay and other sources I’ve put together a nice little collection, but I’m running out of room. Still don’t know where I’m going to plant the Ensete ventricosum and glaucoma and they’re growing fast!

Thanks!

Russell

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CValentine

Welcome Russell!! ~Cheryl

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendrix

frog7994

well come to the group

LilRaverBoi

LOL...isn't that the truth! Welcome to the site! I hope you enjoy it here and learn a lot from the many other plant nerds here! I'm pretty sure most all of the members here are huge plant nerds, so you'll no doubt fit right in! Best of luck with your bonsai and naners. If you have questions, feel free to ask (though something tells me you're more than adequately qualified!). I love bonsai...I had about 15 at one point, but when I went off to college and had to leave them at home, most of them didn't make it. My mom has a real talent for killing bonsai. It's like it's her job or something. So for right now, I'm waiting till I have my own permanent place again before re-investing in some. It was just too hard to see some that I had had for 7+ years be killed off

Well, enjoy the boards!

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BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
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I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

coast crab

Thank you everyone for the kind welcomes!

Still trying to find the time to learn more about this forum, how it works and what all it has to offer - and from what I've seen so far, it is alot!

I'll try to get some pictures together and I do have some questions to post also, so be on the lookout. If anyone is ever down this way please let me know.

Russell

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sbl

Hi There Coast Crab--we are almost neighbors! I like Mobile too--got my education there at USA. Always loved Mobile Mardi Gras as a kid--lots of parades!

What bananas are you growing--maybe we can trade a few pups. I have Orinoco, Raji Puri, Dwarf Red, Ice Cream and one that was sold as Dwarf Cavendish that is something else.

coast crab

SBL,

Here's my list copied from my profile:

Thai (Hawaiian?) black
Bordelon
ice cream - in full bloom!
sikkimensis
zebrina
ornata
velutina (what a weed)
Namwah 'pearl'
'cheeka' (from Home Depot)
raja puri
red iholene
Siam ruby
marginata
itenerans (supposed to be gigantea)
Ensete ventricosum
Ensete glaucum

Threw out Musella lasiocarpa because it was so damn UGLY!

Anyway, I still have family in FWB and travel back and forth pretty often. I don't have dwarf red, look over my list and we'll work something out.

BTW, don't know if you ever check out plants at Lowes and Home Depot but you may want to start. My cheeka and iholene red (wasn't marked) came from Home Depot and and bordelon and zebrina came from Lowes week before last here in Mobile. I'll check out the stores in FWB the next time I'm home, the selection is so much better there. I was shocked as our stores here in Mobile pretty much suck, the ones in Daphne are much better. We also had black and apple, plus others, at the botanical gardens spring sale. Since I'm on the selection committee for the fall sale you can bet I'll be on the lookout for others. Also, there is a guy in Navare named Karl that has tons of stuff and sells on ebay too. My two Ensetes came from him back in June. Don't know if he's on the list but I can give you his contact info.

Russell

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sbl

My dwarf red is a small plant I just got from GreenEarth (along with Ice Cream and Dwarf Orinoco.) I envy your Ice Cream in bloom!

I am feeling really good--I just got my first 3 banana blooms--2 Orinocos (just identified here on the forum) and a Raji Puri I got about a yr ago. My success is what lead me to try a few more varieites.

I have one that I bought at Lowes last yr--it was suppose to be dwarf Cavendish, but is obviously not (my avitar is a picture of it)--it is really cold sensitive, but looks nice.

I will be glad to trade a pup of the dwarf red when it gets big enough to pup.

I have also grown several other tropicals--Pineapple, Dragon Fruit--just got the first bloom, avocados--grafted some cold hardy scions onto some inground seedlings, and citrus (but we are under quarentine).

coast crab

What I'm calling my red iholene and the one in your avitar are the same. Do a google image search and see what you think. I couldn't find any pictures I thought were very good, but it looks the same to me. Come to think of it, when I bought mine from H D there were 2 varieties for sale, this one and what I guessed to be dwarf cavendish!

So, I see that this forum does have a cold hardy list, and a bazillion pictures in individual galleries of bananas and everything else under the sun - but is there variety list with pictures and descriptions that can help us key out unnamed findings? I'll have to look for your orinoco posts, I think that is the old, common banana here on the coast that has been passed around for years now - but I'm not sure.

R

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saltydad

You can check out the Wiki for some helpful data. Welcome.

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"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon





"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; that is what they meant by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."
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coast crab

Thanks so much Saltydad!!!!!!

That's exactly what I was hoping for. Guess what I'll be doing all night!

R

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sbl

here is that banana in a little bigger picture:

adrift

Hew, that's real pretty.

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I've got to stop asking people, "How stupid can you be." People are taking it as a challenge.

lorax

Welcome aboard!

Here's a question - has your Red Iholene fruited for you yet? If it did, do you have pics of the fruit? I ask because I'm quite suspicious that the cultivar sold as "Limones" down here in Ecuador is actually RI, but I haven't been able to find photos of the fruit to compare to mine.

coast crab

Thanks Lorax.

It has not bloomed yet. It was about 3 ft tall when I planted it back in the spring, and now has a pup taller than that. Growth has been incredibly fast, but then the soil here is really good.

Remember that I'm only guessing that it is red iholene - and I'm open to suggestions. I've just taken some pictures and now I'm going to attempt to upload them. Wish me luck, technology is NOT my friend.

Russell

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banfan

Welcome ot the org Russell. We are anxiously awaiting your bonsai banana plant to be listed in auction. Cheers!

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Sigi

The Hollyberry Lady

coast crab

What's old is new again...

I've been MIA for too long now, but I'm back and plan on doing a better job of participating.

Russell

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hydroid

Welcome back Russell, hope to visit with you soon.
Bo