Changes are comin’

The winter weather is coming to an end…thank god. And I am starting my flower/plant list for 2016. I will post my list when its complete.

Here are some updates to the plants I tried to save last season.

I managed to save my Ensete Maurelii Red Abyssinian Banana tree

After the first frost, I cut it down to about 4-5″ ( that was brutal cutting down a 9′ tree) I think I posted summer 2014 year that when I tried to save this plant but cutting it down, wrapping the planter and plant with burlap, and storing it in my garage, which is not heated, the plant basically froze and died. It also had mold on it. Banana plants hold a lot of water in their stems and trucks. If you have ever had these banana plants, you know what Im talking about. If I could explain it, the inside of the stems and truck look almost like a beehive and tons of water get stored in there. I would imagine that my plant frozen and thawed quite a few times during the winter that year. Here is the pic from that year after I brought it back out of the garage. It is soaked and soft and super mushy but you can see what the inside looks like.

So…new strategy. Last season, I cut the stem down to about 5″ and brought the container inside, still in the dirt. After discovering last year how much water the plant held, I didn’t water it at all. I put it inside a closet and within the past I’d say 2 months, its been growing, Yeah!!

banana

You can see where I cut it down to and the new growth is a good 8″. Next year I am going to cut off the leaves and only cut the stem down to where it can still fit in my closet and has room to grow as this one is. If I can keep this plant going, once outside I can add Miloganite to it and it should take off. I’m hoping to get some height on it this year, but I did cut it low so well have to see. Now that I see I can store it inside, I would have liked to have a bigger stem to jump start the height, but oh well. Live and learn.

I also brought in my Ensete Glaucum Snow Banana tree. I didn’t cut it down because I had the ceiling height for it. It was doing so well inside, then it started to die. I kept watering it, which in retrospect I shouldnt have and I think I killed it. It died pretty quickly. I cut the leaves back and stopped watering it. I am hoping that whats in the dirt is still health enough to grow. Im pretty upset because I bought this plant at only 7″ and it grow to about 7’…ugh. Heres what it looked like around July.

I also have a Musa Siam Ruby banana tree in the garage, yikes! I don’t know yet how that faired so Ill keep you posted.

Siam-Ruby

I covered my Colocasia “Black Beauty” elephant ear plant and a Curcuma zedoaria ‘Pink Wonder’ (Pink Wonder Hidden Cone Ginger) that is in the ground with mulch and coconut plant liners so soon Ill remove that and see how they did