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« on: April 24, 2023, 04:06:04 PM »
Got three Bananas up for sale.
All three in 15 gallon containers.
All three will make seedy bananas.
All three are super hardy.
All three were one gallon size when I got them 10 years ago.
So 10 years growth = instant gratification!
$75 each - in San Francisco - local pick up only.
All three for $200
PM me if interested.
These take a beating from the wind in my west facing garden and after the 80 mile per hour winds we had a few weeks ago it’s time to admit they were meant for a more protected garden. There are no big trees in our neighborhood.
So admittedly these look a little beat up but they are putting out new growth already. Perfect for worry free transporting.
Musa Basjoo - a hardy (zone 5-6) banana, probably the most cold hardy banana species. This species will survive snow and great amounts of cold, acting as a giant deciduous perennial. Unlike most other bananas, the foliage can take down to freezing or even slightly below without damage. Its trunks are known to take mid twenties before beginning to freeze down. It will reach 8-12' tall in one growing season with enough heat, water, and fertilizer, and can go close to 20' at maturity. In mild climates, it will overwinter and the stands look much like any other banana. While leaves will survive light frosts, they tend to get badly tattered during winter storms, and plants are probably best at least partially cut back early in spring in most situations. Like most bananas, it probably forms its flower stalk the first year and it emerges and continues the reproductive cycle the second year. If it doesn't freeze down, you may see typical banana flowers and small, seedy, essentially inedible fruit. All bananas seem to appreciate a warm situation, and if you are in the cool coastal belts, you should site this plant so it receives at least some direct sunlight in winter. This species will reportedly take 0°F without protection and -20°F with thick mulch.
Musa sikkimensis Ruby Dragon Fire Breath - DARJEELING BANANA - an even more intensely colored strain than the famous "Red Tiger," This is one of the best and most dramatic ornamental species available, and one of the most cold-tolerant as well. It features wonderful, deep maroon stripes (a la M. sumatrana 'Zebrinus') and undersides on the youngest foliage, and occasionally on mature leaves as well but much fainter. It is a very large, fast grower where well sited, with pseudotrunks growing to 15-18' and leaves adding another 6' or so more. New pseudotrunks spread the clump slowly outwards, eventually form very large, impressive, indeed gigantic colonies where happy. Mature plants can produce a long, arching to pendant flower spike, very showy with its very large, maroon and dark golden bracts and prominent central column of maroon bud bracts. Plants readily set fruit but those aren't edible, being fully packed with seeds. This species is grown as far north as Portland without special attention, and even Seattle if mulched. Where the trunks freeze it regrows to about 10' each year but doesn't flower.
Musa yunnanensis - another highly sought after, highly ornamental, graceful, moderate size, cold-tolerant species from high elevation Yunnan Province in China. It is recognized by long, dark green, ribbed and usually folded leaves held partway out on long petioles which arch over gracefully over. It also has a characteristic, beautiful, white, waxy coating on the petioles and upper trunk, blackish marking on the leaves and pseudotrunks and long, sinuous flower spikes featuring a thin, extended central bud column. In hot, humid, partly shaded conditions the leaves are held flat but in full sun and cool, dry, coastal California the blades usually fold over neatly at the midrib. At my house orioles regularly use those folded leaves as sites for building their hanging-basket nests. Pseudotrunks are thinner and not so tall on this modest-sized species, so it's not likely to outgrow its spot. Originally purchased and sold as M. itinerans by us about ten years ago, this tightly clumping form was separated and formally described in 2008. As with M. sikkimensis Ruby Dragon, above, all our production derives from seed harvested from the single plant in my own home garden, so supply is intermittent and very limited. USDA zone 7 or 8/Sunset zones 5, 8-9, 14-24
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