Quezi

Banana Flower - courtesy Maria Keay - CC-BY

Bananas are large plants which grow very quickly and provide a decidedly tropical appearance to landscapes. They are becoming increasingly popular in northern gardens as well as warmer climates.

Bananas are propagated by suckers, which are found at the base of each plant.

The leaves are usually trimmed off at transplanting but container-grown plants are simply transplanted without trimming.

Bananas are heavy feeders so they need regular fertilization.

There many varieties of bananas which include cooking types, fresh eating types, and ornamentals. Many of the banana plants found in retail nurseries are of unknown variety. Since most of us plant them as ornamentals only, it doesn’t really matter whether the variety is known, only if it is of standard size or dwarf.

Banana plants are quite sensitive to frosts and are readily killed back to the ground in very light freezes.

Here in Ohio I grow them in pots.  But I put a Japanese fiber banana in the ground a few years ago, let it freeze back, then mulched heavily.  I had suckers return the following spring.  It is still alive. Japanese fiber bananas have been known to survive temperatures as low as -20 degres F.

Fruiting of bananas will normally require 10 to 15 months from the time a sucker emerges. So, fruiting doesn’t occur in cold weather areas, as the plants keep getting killed back to the ground.

For more information about growing bananas