Great pictures, Ron. Amazing story! So, how did you take care of it while overwintering in the house? Do you fertilize it often? It has an enormous height. If I have to guess, it might be the ice cream because this variety grows tall. I have one in the ground that is 10-11 ft now. It has a pup that is 4-5 ft. So, has yours pupped yet? That said, I'm only guessing because I don't know how tall monkey fingers grow and haven't even seen one. Either way, you're going to enjoy your first fruit of your labor. How exciting! If time permits, keep posting your pictures. It would be interesting to see how it progresses with its fruit of the loom. I started planting bananas 2 and a half years ago, so far no sight of any blooms yet, so your story is inspiring!

I see you have some kind of palms trees in the background. What varieties are those and do they do well where you are? The tree besides the banana, is it an Italian cypress? It looks lush green and very healthy. I have three Italian cypress and they're about 5 ft now--showing very slow growth and the foliages aren't as green. Wondering if I should feed it to make them look greener.

That should be good timing, considering we've got atleast 3.5 to 4.5 months worth of heat left. After it fruits, its game over, right?

Wow, I'm impressed!!! Thats a beauty!!! I had one grow almost that tall, and thanks to high ceilings, its possible. I hope you enjoy it!!! Diana55

Wow that's impressive! I'm really curious, what size pot did you have to use to support that?

Bummed here, the photos are only showing up as a red "X" on my screen. Must be parental controls or something... Sure would enjoy seeing them though. Mick -- Abilene, TX

I don't calculate pot sizes in "gallons", I just do it by simple measurements.

The pot this baby has been growing in is 20" tall and 20" across at the top. It tapers down slightly so I suspect it's 16" across at the bottom. It's a large pot, but not excessive.

The bloom has now formed completely, started tiping downwards and things are looking good. More pictures to come.

rwallen, actually, you are measuring pots correctly! :)

Tropical foliage plants for indoor use have their size identified by the diameter of the pot measured across the top (so you technically have a 20" banana, although that sounds pretty silly and vaguely obscene!). When I switched from working at a garden center to an interior landscaping company, it took me a long time to stop thinking in gallons and start thinking in inches!

Well, here's an update on June 18th, less than 3 weeks later.

The flower has emerged completely and I now have 3 clumps of bananas clearly visible. I'm amazed at how fast this has progressed.

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This is absolutely stunning. Growing bananas in a Chicago summer! You've done the impossible. Hope you get all this well documented. I don't know if anybody in the past has done that before. Perhaps some university extension might have already done that in their greenhouse? I presume this plant has already given off some pups. Are you going to do the same with the them? Thanks for sharing the pics--congrats and a job well done. Look forward to more pics.

Thanks for the kind words. I actually had a dwarf cavendish set fruit about 6-7 years ago, but being only about 5 feet tall, it wasn't nearly as dramatic as this beauty.

Unfortunately, some of the 8 foot leaves took a beating during an early summer thunderstorm so it's not quite the thing of beauty that it once was, but what the heck, it's setting fruit and that's the point of it all, right?

Awesome! It is a pleasure to see it!

Congrats, Great job !!!!

Just found this story and wanted to up-post it. Makes me believe I can get bananas from pot culture within 2-3 years. The pictures are great too.