Bananas are the best way to add tropical splendor to your landscape. Lush and fast growing, bananas can be used as a backdrop or as a focal specimen. Create a summer windbreak or privacy screen. Plant a group of 3 to 5 and create an instant shade garden. Mix in elephant ears and gingers for a South Seas paradise.
The broad, flat leaves of banana trees stand out in the landscape. Plant them in clumps of three to five for a sunny tropical look. They thrive in low wet spots or on the edges of ponds. Add ginger lilies and sago palms for a jungle of your own. Bananas have a very shallow root system and dwarf varieties are suitable for containers. Therefore, you can put them in large planters around your pool or out on the patio.
Other bananas, true bananas, genus Musa, are also monocots and grow much the same way with one exception, they produce a rhizome that spreads and increases in a large bulky mat forming clonal colonies with. Ensete, at least those grown in temperate climates where these cannot mature and flower, have a much smaller rhizome that basically is limited to the width of the pseudo-stem. In both cases the rhizome stores starches so that even if they lose all of their p-stems they will come back with vigor. The p-stem does contain water that the stored plant can use to maintain itself.
This massive banana whose trunk can reach three feet in diameter is a real botanical curiosity. It is unbelievably fast growing and has carmine red undersides to the ribs of its huge leaves. It can be used as a summer bedding plant in cooler climates.
Red Abyssinian holds its foliage very upright on a burgundy colored pseudo-trunk. Spring/summer growth is extremely vigorous. This tropical banana excels in hot, humid, wet summers and rich fertile soils and fails when soil moisture and nitrogen fertilizer are lacking.
Select a large container greater than 24 inches in diameter at the base and weighted down to support what will be an enormous plant by late summer. Maintain your banana on the luxury diet with sun, water and liquid fertilizer.
Choose flowering bedding plants, large leaf hostas, vining ground covers, and/or ferns to complement Ensete banana in a container. In zone 8 and further south combine tropical gingers, spiky-leaved phormiums, and various palms.
The Ensete maurelii is also called Red Abyssinian Banana and is a huge ornamental plant with leaves up to 10 feet long. The maurelii is a colorful plant that looks like it has been hand painted with red leaf surfaces and red leaf axils. In their native tropical environment, they can grow to 18 feet or more in height, but they will remain much smaller in containers or cultivation. This banana does not produce suckers so it must be grown from seed or by tissue culture. It is very fast growing, but difficult to flower in northern climates. The fruits have very large, hard seeds and are inedible. It will grow well in full sun to partial shade and makes an outstanding focal point in a large container or planted in the ground. The Ensete maurelii brings the tropical look to any garden setting.
Abyssinian bananas are tropical specimen plants that can do beautifully in a conservatory or sunroom. The key to successful growth is more: more water, more light, more fertilizer, and more warmth. They are not especially tender and can withstand colder temperatures and will recover, although there might be some browning of the leaf margins. They can be vulnerable to pests including aphids, mealy bugs, scale, and whitefly. If possible, identify the infestation as early as possible and treat with the least toxic option.
Instantly turn your landscape or patio into a tropical paradise! Although Ensete is not a true banana, its enormous leaves and imposing size create the same exotic feeling. This plant is native to the tropical regions of East Africa, so it will not survive a winter freeze, but it can be brought indoors to a sunny location provided the light and space are available. Provide shelter outdoors from strong winds that can cause the leaves to tear.
The Ensete (Red Banana Tree) grow in a spiral from the short central stem and resemble banana leaves, except they have beautiful reddish leaves with a robust red midrib. The more sunlight they receive, the richer in color they display in the summer months. Keep them in frost-free climates above 50ÂF. They do best when overwintered as an indoor plant or in a greenhouse. They enjoy a moderately dry climate with low humidity.
In Thai folklore, the banana trees have a young female avenging spirit, Lady Tani, that floats around them. She appears on a full moon in traditional Thai clothing to the man who has mistreated her. In the wild, these trees display beautiful, vibrant flowers, symbolizing her beauty. Their leaves are considered to have magical powers for fertility and childbirth.
Ensete, also known as enset, is an important food crop in Ethiopia, and an ornamental plant enjoyed in landscapes around the world. Though the bananas they produce are not edible, Ensete plants do produce food in the form of a starchy corm (underground storage organ) and a starchy stem base. When sun and good moisture are provided, they will give you a show to remember, especially if you are not from the tropics, as most would not expect such a large tropical specimen to be growing in your yard. But this is very doable if you store the plant appropriately over the winter and revive them to be planted again each year.
After seven years of being hauled in and out of the greenhouse this Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum, Ethiopian banana) finally hadenough. This particular plant is a seed-raised green Ensete ventricosum.
Here we see one of the larger ripe bananas surrounded (and no doubt feeling rather intimidated) by a group of mature Abyssinianbanana seeds. Clearly any chance of passing on the family name from this banana to the next generation would be close to zero at best.
Some sources suggest that once the flower stalk has been cut off, the plant willbegin to form suckers from the base. This information however only cameto light after the entire Abyssinian banana had been chopped into a thousandpieces and added to the compost bin.
There are many types of banana plants available to the home gardener, many of which produce copious amounts of fruit. Did you know there are also various types of the ornamental red banana plant too, specifically grown for their attractive red foliage color? Read on to learn more about these interesting plants.
Ensete, also known as enset, is an important food crop in Ethiopia, and an ornamental plant enjoyed in landscapes around the world. Though the bananas they produce are not edible, Ensete plants do produce food in the form of a starchy corm (underground storage organ) and a starchy stem base. Enset farmers in Ethiopia dig up the corms and lower stems of mature trees and process them into bread or porridge.
Growing ornamental bananas in large pots is also possible. In cooler climates, pots can be brought outdoors in summer and indoors in winter but be sure you have enough space for the plant before beginning this endeavor.
Enset trees also grow more slowly than Musa banana trees and have lifespans ranging from three to ten or more years. With patience, you may be able to see your tree flower. Each plant flowers only once, at full maturity, and then dies.
Red banana plant care involves proper site selection, watering, and fertilization. These trees require rich soil with plenty of organic matter and partial or full sun. Be sure the soil at the planting site is well drained.
Abyssinian banana is in the banana family and it looks a lot like a banana (Musa), but it is not a banana and it does not produce any edible fruit. The plant is an herbaceous perennial with huge leaves shaped like giant boat paddles. The leaves can be 20 ft long and 3-5 ft wide.
Huge might be an understatement. The leaves are bright olive-green and the midribs on the undersides are maroon. The leaves emerge from the center of the plant on a short trunk-like pseudo-stem, so that the plant's overall height is usually little more than the length of a single leaf. Fruits look like little dry bananas but are not good to eat. The cultivar 'Maurelii' has reddish leaves and red leaf stalks while the cultivar 'Montbeliardii' is tall and slender with narrow leaves and black midribs.
Abyssinian banana can be grown in partial shade to full sun. It does best in full sun. Abyssinian banana uses a lot of water in growth so be sure to water frequently and keep the soil moist, but not water logged.
It is typically 5 to 10 m (16 to 32 ft) tall and is similar in appearance to the Banana (Musa acuminata), with a straight, succulent trunk and large banana-like leaves. However, it does not have suckering habit, so it does not form clumps of stems as the banana does.
Flowers are produced only once when the plant is around four to five years old. At the end of flowering, yellow, banana-like fruit develop with dry, inedible pulp embedded with numerous pea-sized black seed.
Abyssinian banana produces a large underground corm that can be more than 50 cm (1.6 ft) in diameter when the plant reaches maturity. The corm and the swollen stem at the base of the plant are high in starch and are cooked as a vegetable in the Ethiopian highlands, where it is native.
38c6e68cf9