Banana grove, Cannas and Hostas

[Cindi]

This summer has been unseasonably cool and damp, lots of sunshine, but not enough for our area, lots of cloudy days, too much for our area, lots of rain, that is OK.  Many things in our gardens have not done as well as they should have.  Cucumber complete crop failure and late blight in the greenhouse, unheard of.  THis happened in the middle of August, unheard of.  Late season blight occurs in early September, and certainly not on tomatoes under cover.  Weird.

The picture you see has the banana plants in the centre (actually the name is Basjoo), hostas surrounding the banana plants and Canna lilies on each end (the taller darker plants).  The Cannas set a beautiful orange flower stalk that arises above the foliage.  Stunningly beautiful. This year the Cannas did not even set a single bloom, bummer!!!  Never seen that happen before.  The banana plants did OK, but not nearly as big as they should have been.

In about 2 weeks time now, I will cut these massive trees down to about shoulder height, put some black sleeves on them for protection and they will be this big again by the beginning of August next year.  This grove is a gorgeous focal point in the background of our pool, just before the dark bush begins, that is on the perimeter of the deep ravine that a little creek runs through that the kids have so much fun in.  Have a wonderful day, enjoy this great life we live.  Cindi

[biglipzit]

Wow I am truly impressed that you got banana plants up in your area to look so healthy!
On this island in the Caribbean, banana is our main export and the bees sure love the banana nectar. Did your bees take advantage of the blossom if it did manage to flower and does it have enough time to develop into fruit up in BC?
Daniel

[Cindi]

Daniel, we have had the banana grove now for about 6 years.  Every year the 4 year old plants die off (so I am told it is after 4 years) and the new ones that come up every year continue the grove.  It started out with only one plant, look at it now.

I have not had any bananas come on this plant.  I have seen others in our area with the fruit, but mine have not.  I think I may be doing something wrong.  I do not have any interest in harvesting bananas, but I would love to get the grove to set flowers at least.  Not sure how to do this.  Someone told me that if you want the grove to produce bananas, you must cut out each new sprout that comes up in the spring.  Maybe one year I will try that, but I am focussed on getting the biggest, most prolific grove possible.  I am hooked on the massive foliage of these plants, and I love that tropical look it gives to my yard.

This grove does so well I think because we are in a rainforest, that is what my area of B.C. is called, we are near the coastline and we get lots of rain.  I put steeer manure on the grove every spring, lots of it, and I do water this area consistently and lots.  It appears to me that it loves moisture.  That is what it gets here.  I cut it down hard every fall to shoulder heighth to keep the plants from towering over 50 feet tall I would imagine  :) ;)  Even at that, I think the plants are about 20 feet tall, rapid, rapid growth, you can almost see it grow daily.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life we live.  Cindi

[super dave]

yes i agree those are some great plants-so what zone are you in -- i would love to try to grow them here but i think it would get to cold  :~(--also i was thinking is you plant a male plant that does not produce fruit  hmmmm :'(

[abejaruco]

I do not have any interest in harvesting bananas,

Cindi. Tasting a ripe fruit in general, and a banana in particular,  under the tree where you has just harvested from, is a "religious" experience that the supermarket can´t offer to you.

[Cindi]

Super Dave, we are in zone 8b, pretty mild, but we can get deep freezing for short periods, I wrap the banana plants during the wintertime, after I have cut them down to shoulder heighth.  Abejaruco, now that really makes me have a desire to attempt to get bananas to grow on the trees, next year, my agenda.  Have a wonderful day, greatest of life.  Cindi

[reinbeau]

Ah, 8b, my dream zone - I think.  It doesn't get horribly hot and humid there for weeks at a time in the summer, does it?

[buzzbee]

Sure would like something like that banana plant here! It's beautiful.

[Romahawk]

It doesn't have the same foliage but if you want norther banana flavor give the Pawpaw tree a try...

[Cindi]

Romanhawk.  The pawpaw tree, sounding intriguing, I will google it, maybe if I like it I can obtain it and grow it here.

Ann, zone 8b.  A dream zone for sure.  We live in a beautiful climate.  Mild, moist, called the rainforest of B.C. and man it pours, like the past two days, and this morning.  I am sitting in my living room, the rain is coming down like cats and dogs and the wind that goes with it.  We have a gargoyle fountain on the southwest corner of our pool.  My husband has red lights that shine on it, we keep the lights on all the time, when I go outside this morning and look, I can see the glow of the red lights on the banana grove, it is beautiful, but the wind is blowing hard and the leaves are swaying greatly, it is eerie, scarey almost, deep red glowing leaves in the dark.  But...the wind scares me, I don't like wind.

Our summer weather averages about 25 to 29 degrees celsius.  It can become hotter, but that is the summertime temperature average.  We do not get the humidity, as the temperatures are not high enough.  Now and then we experience days that can get up to 35 degrees, and then we have humidity I guess.  I really don't know what humidity is....not familiar with it here.  I am already longing for the warm dog days of summer  :) ;)

The winters are usually rainy.  We can get snow, sometimes for a couple of weeks, off and on, but the snow is moist, great for snowmen and snowballs.  Usually our Christmas does not have snow, just rain.  In January we can have a couple of weeks of hard freezing, but never any longer than that.  We prepare for those cold temperatures and wrap any outside pipes that may be exposed to the cold.  We can have frost and freeze as early as mid October, like last year, but that is rare.  If we have freeze, it is usually around the beginning of November, then only the killing frost, it warms up and back to rain.  We have a very temperate climate, but again, like I said, rain.  Rain can be very annoying, even when we walk on the still green lawn in wintertime, it can sound like a sponge, sloshy.  We love our gumboots, those are a must in our climate.

Leaf fall is beginning now with the big leaf Maples, the grapes are following suite, and then comes all the other deciduous trees, the beech is the last to lose it leaves.  I have wonderful compost because of the lush grass that is mown all summer long and the leaves from our trees.  The flower gardens all get turned back into the earth from whence they come, they are lush too.

That is our southwestern British Columbia climate in a nutshell.  Eeeks, right, nutshell, my sisters walnuts should soon be getting ready for harvest.  Nothing like the fresh walnuts, no store bagged walnut could ever compare, and yes, the hazelnuts!!!  Have a wonderful day, enjoy our life we live.  Cindi

[biglipzit]

The banana trees wont get much taller than that for sure. The fresh fruit simply is amazing. The banana you get in america has alot alot of artificial fertilizers in it which spoils the taste compared to what we grow here in the caribbean.
The Pawpaw is an amazing plant which grows very rapidly and is definitely one you should try. I got lots in my yard and if customs would allow it, i could try mailing you some seeds from my best one.
banana nectar makes amazing honey!
Daniel

[Cindi]

Daniel, yes, I don't doubt chemical fertilizers are used massively and may alter the taste of foods.  I grow all my produce using organic methods.  I do not use chemicals, not that I do not agree with them, I just don't have the need.  We have enough compost and manures to remedy our soils.  I bring in steer and turkey manures as well.  All my plants get turned back into the soil and all my lawn waste (and I have enormous amounts of lawn to mow), the procedure of mowing entails about 2 and one half hours of mowing.  I bag the grass and use it for my compost pile, which is a monster of a thing.

Organic or chemical fertilizers.  Plants need nutrients.  Plants don't really give a hoot where they they their nutrients from, they will take it from wherever they can get it and use it to their benefit.

I will check out in Canada about the Pawpaw, so don't worry about the seed thing, yet.....I may lean on you for that eventually, I am not sure if there is issues with seeds and customs, but if I need to get the seed from you, I would do some investigation first, for your benefit and mine.  Thank you for the offer, it was very kind and gracious  ;) :).  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life.  Cindi

[abejaruco]

I have been walking through any orchades, around my village and I found a "bananal". Cindi came at my mind...and I took any pictures.

Now I am using Picasa, is really good.




flower, by the way, I´ve never seen a bee in the banana flower.


banana



ripe sweet banana

[Cindi]

Abejaruco, I looked at the entire photo album you had on Picasso.  Beautiful pictures.  I have some questions.  What were the white things, they looked something like great big white sticks that were sticking out of the top of the mountains in one picture?

The banana plants and flowers and fruit were like something from outer space eh?  Intriguing and again, beautiful.

What were the broken down buildings?  It looks like someone took a great big machine and crumpled them all up.

The cactus were absolutely the strangest thing that I have ever seen too, same as banana. 

Thank you so much for taking us to this part of your world, it was a thrill!!!!  Have a beautiful and wonderful day, greatest of life.  Cindi

P.S.  Was that dark haired little man your son?  Very good looking boy for sure  :)

[abejaruco]

The white stick are wind mills.

In the photo there are cherimoyes, pomegranates, quince, eryobotria japonica, citrus...
The broken buildings were the houses were lived the workers of my grand father during the blockade. Houses built with stone and mud, with straw roof. They had pigs in the small buildings. It was a hard time where people could eat something in the field.

The place that I was "photing" is a "vergel" (flower and fruit garden). It was a place where lived the hermits centuries ago, you know, people that ate honey and grasshopper, like Saint John Baptiste, and actually are living the Germans that are buying the old orchades to live there. Imagine, Germany, a laborious and wet country, and Spain, a hot and fiesta country. When they come here they don´t come back. :-D

[Cindi]

Abejaruco.  Well, isn't that all such wonderful information.

YOu are very fortunate to have as many varieties of food growing near to your home, consider yourself to have a very special life.  I wonder.....do you have fruit that grows all the year around?  Is there a wintertime where no fruit grows?  I remember you speaking about frost that did some damage to some kind of fruit blossom, but I can't remember what type it was you said.  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, in our great life.  Cindi

[abejaruco]

Yes Cindi, I am fortunate and I give gracias to God, no doubt. :) I have fruit always.

The frost came from the North Pole or from Siberia, really came two or three frosts in any days. It was a disaster in my orchade because it is in downhill, a vega surround by little mountains where the inversion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_%28meteorology%29 frost everything.

[Cindi]

Abejaruco.  Disasters, bummers

This year was a bad year for my area, low nectar gathering, low temperatures, small amount of days of sunshine.  Lots of cloud, and lots of moisture, not an awful lot of rain, but cool, moist conditions.

Many of my garden crops were burdened by these weather conditions.  Late blight that came in the middle of August in covered greenhouse, almost, I say almost lost, all my tomatoes, lost every single cucumber, poor crops all the way around.

The most saddest of my gardens was my Night Scented Stocks.  Never, ever, in my entire years of gardening did I have these beauties of the night not permeate my life with intoxicating fragrance.  These flowers opened their beautiful lavender flowers as soon as the twilight began, but barely a scent emitted from the flowers.  Not even throughout the entire night, not a scent the entire summer long.  The disappointment of my life.

I plant these flowers specifically because I grow then on our bedroom patio, we inhale the fragrance all night long.  This year, planted enmasse on our patio, no scent, nothing.

So disappointing, but I will try again next summer.  Maybe this summer was far too cool without the beautiful rays of the sun, and Vitamin D to go along with it.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life, great healty, what more could we wish for?  Cindi

[abejaruco]

Yes. Nature can be criminal.

Have you ever tryed a light over the plants? Here the bulbs are used in the greenhouses for growing Gypsophila paniculata. That plant needs a number of solar light to open all the flowers at the same time, if the sun is not enought lamps are added.

I don´t know the Night scented stock, here called Night alhelí. Alhelí is a name that came from Persia together with the plant in the times of the "One Thousand and One Nights".
Another oriental name that came with the scent plant was the "jazmín", jasmine. There are different varieties of jasmine. It is a wonderful aroma day and night.
And finally, my favorite, is the Cestrum nocturnum, Lady of the nights.

You have to try these plants. If the winter is cold use a plant pot. I have seen in the French Alps people growing lemons tree in pots. During the winter in the garage, spring to the garden. AND THEY HARVEST LEMONS! (Two or three :shock:).

I forget, the black haired little man is my 10 years old son. Yes, the light of the life.
Good day Cindi.

[Cindi]

Abejaruco, the Night Scented Stock.  The latin name is Matthiola Bicornis, google that, you will read beautiful information about the night fragrance, nothing can compare in my eyes.

This Cestrum Nocturnum, I googled the plant and yes, it would not be hardy in my climate.  But it is also intriguing and I will want it for a plant that I can bring inside in the wintertime, outside in the summertime.  I do this with some of my tenders that need the safe place when it is too cold.

I cannot use lights, the plants here are too many.

I use lights in my greenhouse in the spring when I am propogating my seeds and cuttings.  I have an oil furnace that keeps the greenhouse warm and many many benches of lights.  I was once a small time nursery operator and have achieved great skill with propogation of these seeds and growing on many plants.

This Cestrum Nocturnum is known by many names:

Night Blooming cestrum
Lady of the Night
Queen of the Night
Nigh-Blooming Jessamine
Night-blooming Jasmine
Raat Ki Rani (princess of the night) in Urdu or Hindi

This plant sounds like it grows to a small shrub, but I am on a hunt for it.  I will look through my many exotic seed catalogues, maybe even the nurseries around my home grow it.

I love Jasmine, I have grown Jasmine before, never had good enough luck with it because it is tender and it has died in my gardens because I did not bring it into winter warmth  :( :)  But living and learning.

Children are the most prized possession we could ever be so lucky to share our lives with, your Son looks great, congratulations!!!  Have a wonderful and excellently beautiful day, Cindi