I have the Ice Cream/Blue Java here in Charleston. However, I have only had it since late April '05, and its grown from 10" to over 3', and is still picking up steam.

What is HD?

Home Depot would be my guess.

In Z10a here my ice cream got set back a bit last winter. Only light frost but the growing tip turned brown and the 1st few leaves in the spring choked a bit. At the end of June the "leader" stalk is still growing more slowly than the "follower" stalk. It was protected against a white south facing wall in the winter, I think it will need more protection than that.

Well I am not encouraged by your experience Hector. Would you know what your lowest temp was last winter? It was pretty mild here, but even so, I would guess a great deal colder than you. I was hoping someone would write in and say "my Ice Cream survived temps in the teens". With that I'd at least have a shot.

Porkpi, do you plan on leaving yours outside for winter? I want to be sure to hear from you next year if you do.

Gardenguy, it is Home Depot, sorry. I use that abbreviation all the time on other forums. I bet that was a mystery!

Hi Alan. I had Ice Cream take 24 degrees last year and only lost a foot or two of stalk ( I protected the bottom 4 feet with pine straw, and the other 7 feet ( 11 feet of trunk total) was left to fend for itself in the cold. So, at the end of the winter, I still had 9 feet of trunk. And now I have bananas, although only 18!!) 24 was my coldest this past winter, but Ice Cream did better than raja puri or namwah, and I couldn't tell that the orinocos did any better. This one is a real winner. I planted it out as a 4 inch tissue culture plug in April of 2004 and by November of 2004 I had 11 feet of trunk...this one grows fast!!!!!!! You can always tell the Ice Cream by the "whitish" markings on the trunk up till about 9 feet. Eay to ID this plant when young.

I have two Ice creams.

One is next to the house facing south. It is protected on one side by an ele ele, an itinerans, and a nice bunch(15 or so plants) of orinoco(we think). On the other side are 2 basjoos. I hope to have it protected fairly well on 3 sides and would like to cover it with tobacco cloth on really cold nights.

The other is bracketed by two large stands of pampas grass. I am hoping the pampas grass will give off a little heat for protection as well. It is full of decaying matter.

The one next to the house is of more concern as I feel that it is kore likely to have more p-stem make it through the winter.

My garage is too warm for winter storage anyway.

Wilmington Islander, I am looking forward to seeing my growth take off like yours did last year. They were doing great until the hail storm 10 days ago. It ripped up a bunch of leaves and did slow leaf production, but they seem to be getting back on track. 2 leaves in 10 days with another on the way. I suspect the rate to increase slightly as the plant gets more large leaves.

We have had tons of rain here.

Does anyone have a picture of the "whitish markings". My Ice Cream was given to me and I would like to make sure it really is one as well.

Alan, which HD in ATL has ice creams for sale?

i think you would be hard pressed to keep one alive year-round outside in this area. I have a few ice creams that are in the ground right now. I brought them in for the winter and put them outside in early April. One is about 7' tall right now. I left one small one in the ground over the winter and it turned to mush. I am in Fayetteville....

I am also in the market for an Ice Cream Banana plant. I wander if the Home Depot's around here have that variety? I've seen banana plants up here at Home Depots and Lowes.

Wilmington where are you? I was very excited to see you live in Georgia though perhaps much further south than me! That fact alone makes me feel better. Maybe I won't ever see fruit in the ground, but I'd get a kick out of seeing it make it through winter anyway. I had three Orinocos survive winter. My smallest two both sprouted from atop last years stems. My oldest one had to come back from the corm.

Porkpi, sounds like your place is a banana paradise. You have overwintered Ele Ele there? If memory serves thats a really big one right? How tall does it get for you(are you able to measure or guess!?) Please let me know how the Ice Creams fare!

Spike, I was browsing the tables at the Douglasville store and ran across a few one gallons with two labeled 'Ice Cream'. I may never know if in fact they are as labeled, but for $7 no way I could leave without one anyway! So you had bad luck with it in the ground? When did you plant the small one you left out during winter?

Which reminds me, Wilmington I took a pic of mine. See if it has the look of Ice Cream.......

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:410078}}

Alan, that pic looks like an ice cream to me. I'm going to check out the HD on the southside tomorrow and see if they have any. Imho, I think they are the best looking amongst the basjoo, SDC, and Orinocos I have in the garden.

The one I left outside was planted last July, I think. Since this year I put them all out in early April, maybe their corm and root sytem will be strong enough to survive with heavy mulching, provided we have a mild winter. Both of my ice creams have plenty of pups right now so I'll probably cut them off in Oct. and take them inside for the winter. The cool thing I'm learning about bananas is they are kinda like a perpetual motion machine -- the life cycle never ends as long as they stay healthy.

Huh, I still don't see the difference in looks. I have several that I got from a friend here(that come back every year(though they die down and come back from the corm) and they look just like my ice cream does. I will just have to figure out how to put pictures on here and see if I can show you all mine.

I am directly on the 32nd parallel, about 10 miles ESE of Savannah. ANd that looks like an Ice Cream pup to me as well...but it did appear to have more reddish color than mine did, even when young.

Spike I think that planting as late as July, for a plant such as IC, would have a greater effect on hardiness. Since it is on the tender side I think it would need as long as possible in the ground to have a better chance. I can contradict the early planting mantra, with my basjoo however. I originally planted it on August 3(2000) and it survived that winter no problem. My lowest temp that winter was 13F which occured on December 20! Also of note about availability, I went back today and they also had Pisang Ceylon(Mysore), and Dwarf Red. I wanted Mysore, but didn't get it simply because I don't have room inside to overwinter another less than hardy banana. I tried one in the ground last year and it did not survive winter.

Wilmington is in Savannah! I can't believe how much difference 200-250 miles can make! I would not be surprised if my plant were not IC. Home Depot is notorious for selling plants incorrectly labeled.

Well gonna keep it and maybe have some naners!

It is my first year for the ice cream, ele ele, itinerans, and basjoo. So I can offer no data yet on overwinter in Charleston. The ele ele get about 20' I think. It is a funny variety. It takes its sweet time unrolling the leaves. It seems to wait until the new leaf stem is 2-3 inches out of the p-stem before it slowly(2-3 days) start to unwrap.

My orinoco(we think) came with the house when I bought it in 1992. They are thriving this year as I am paying attention to them with water, mulch and compost. Each time I cut a pup from the big plants a softball chunk of white corm comes off with the pup. Makes me wonder how big the mother corm is.

It will be interesting to see how my plants do compared with Wilmington Island's this winter since we are both coastal.

Ice Cream in zone 8 will be very iffy. I would protect it over the winter by bringing it indoors or putting it in a crawlspace.

Here is my Ice Creams and unknown bananas.
http://photobucket.com/albums/b244/bananalover2/

Sorry I would have done it right but it wouldn't let me add the link. Bring up the box then take away the box, lol.