They hate our humidity and eventually wither away. I've killed several.

JG

Carol, I planted an ensete ornamental banana last year. It grew to be quite large. The extreme cold that we had this year (22*) caused serious damage. I thought that it had died but just last week it sprouted out a couple of small leaves. It seems that it should make a good recovery. This plant doesn't make pups, so when it flowers, it will die.

I do have an ornamental lotus banana that I have had for years that produces an attractive yellow flower. It does multiply by suckers so now I have a clump of them.

Bananas are tropical plants that do take the high humidity and heat very well. Most bananas are grown in the tropics. My concern for you is the cold. JAX is much colder than my DeLand area. This variety of ornamental banana is too large for a pot. If you really want one of these it would be best if you protected it during the winter.

Christine

You can find on Ebay and plant in a pot to move inside in cold weather. Where there is a will there is a way.

Tropicalfreak

If they don't produce pups, then they are seed grown? It's very pretty and very tropical looking. :o)

You made me remember my lotus banana, I'll have to look for it and see if it made it through the cold winter this year.

Not all bananas like high humidity. This ensente if from Africa and likes cooler temps and lower humidity. In places like Costa Rica, you will only see this ensete growing in the cooler & higher elevation of the mountains. They can't even get this ensete to thrive long term in botanical gardens like Leu gardens.
I applaud your short term success, perhaps it's your more northern location or the fact that we had an unusually cool winter. For most in FL, this will be a disappointment once they experience our long steamy extended summers.

Ensete ventricosum (both green and red forms) does not like the high night temperatures and humidity in FL during the summer. On a rare occasion they will make it through a summer but usually they die back by mid summer. Sometimes they will resprout in the fall when the weather cools but usually rot.

They do not clump and die after they flower. They do produce large amounts of seed so if you get one to flower you can grow new ones. They are also very sensitive to nematodes in sandy soil.

Ensete glaucum is the only Ensete that will tolerate our summers.

Eric
Orlando,FL

Eric,

What a great looking Ensete! I will be on the lookout for this one. Jeff has had great results with E perrieri in Costa Rica. He's lower elevation so I'm wondering if that one may do well for us here too.

The picture of the red ensete that I recently posted was taken on August 14, 2009. It made it through the summer beautifully and it didn't die back at all. I bought mine at the annual Leu Gardens plant sale last year. I wish that I bought another one last spring.

Christine

Saw these at the Home Depot by Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville a few days ago - first time ever. They were $19.99 in case anyone is interested. I didn't buy... but I do still want. :)

I've tried the red one too, and it has shrunk over the last three years. :( It definitely isn't cut out for our hot nights.

jaxtropics, thanks for the info. Did you have your red banana in full sun? Or in shade? Meems, who writes the blog "Hoe & Shovel", has one. She is just north of Tampa. She has it in the shade and it is doing well... so I don't know - I still want to try it sometime. Below is a link to her blog and photos of the red banana.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Hoe & Shovel - Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii'

Hey Carol,
It's been a while since I've logged in here and since I've chatted with you. Hope you are doing well. Just wanted to give an update on the red bananas. Both of mine are coming back from the cold beautifully. They've been putting on new leaves since late January. They are situated where they get shifting shade all day. One of them probably gets a little more direct sun for a couple of morning hours and it actually does better than the other one ... especially during the summer. Last summer I considered moving the one that gets deeper shade because it doesn't seem to do as well once the crape leafs out and shades it more. I haven't done it yet. I may regret it by summer but too many other things pressing to worry with it. My only complaint about them is they do not like the wind at all. Or I should say mine don't do well on those occasional days when we get strong winds. I've had to stake both of them or they lean. The jury is still out on how long they will like my garden. I've had them in the ground since September of 2009 (to give you a little history). I don't feed them. They get once weekly irrigation or rain.

Hope that helps.
Meems

I live in Costa Rica at an elevation of about 1300M. I have small (1-2M tall) red banana plants that I believe are called Musa Velutina. The fruits open like flowers after ripening and contain many black seeds that are a little smaller than papaya seeds and sprout readily. Like all the banana plants that I know of, they die back after fruiting. I believe that they also reproduce by pups, but, as I noted, they reproduce readily from seeds. My lowest temperatures are the upper 50s Farenheit (and my maximum is about 80), so I don't know about their cold tolerance; however, I believe that these bananas would make good container plants that could be taken indoors. Of course, if they didn't make it, you could start over if you saved seed.

I just posted a new thread over at Bananas.org about E.V.s, hoping to find more evidence of their prosperity or decline during the summer months in Florida.

Only 1 of my 4 Red Abyssinians were subjected to this past summers' heat, and it did okay in a pot in the shade, but it was still a very young TC specimen.

Sadly, no responses to my thread just yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ensete Maurelii vs Florida Humidity

Have you thought about a Siam Red Ruby, it you want a red leafed banana? They grow here quite well and are very colorful making it a good ornamental. They do well in a pot or in the ground for me.

I would get the zebrina banana. It is slightly more cold hardy than the siam ruby and is a fast grower and makes lots of pups. It is very pretty. It likes heat and humidity and does well in the south. Wellspring gardens has them for under 5.00 on ebay for small starter plants. I think the siam ruby is actually prettier but you must keep them very warm, dry and humid in the winter they are pickier than the zebrina in my experience.
~SJN

By dry I mean dry roots but some humidity in the air

I forget I am futher south then a lot of you and I don't have the problems you guys have with the cold as often as you do. The Siam Ruby does very well for me, but might not like the cold you get in Jax. You might have to grow it in a pot and bring it in for the winter.

I have several , one of them for 6 years. As far as I know they don't fruit... just ornamental . It's 23 ft tall and no fruit. My green banana a trees fruit after 10-12 months. Hope that helps. I dig them up every year in the winter.....( really just 2 months , in zone 8 )

I got a Red E Ventricosum banana late this spring. It did well in a pot getting quite large. About July I put it in the ground and did okay for awhile then started growing backwards (declining).. its pretty small right now..it really does dislike the hotter night temps as Eric (a previous poster) mentioned. I have grown both the green and red ones from seed in pots in S. Louisiana and they did quite well. They can get huge when they are happy. I'm going to put mine back in a pot again and see if it improves now that the nights are cooling off and it seems to be perking up a little. I think it takes the humidity better in a pot, based on my experiences. I also think they appreciate a little shade in the hottest part of the day here.

I also grew these in AZ with basically no humidity and way above 100F temps during the summer they definitely hated that but survived with some shade and a misting system I had set up for my tropicals.

My two Zebrina bananas are doing quite well, currently, in the ground and are beautiful.

I've killed (or the winter, I should say, killed) 2 Siam Ruby bananas here but that was before I had my greenhouse techniques refined lol.

~Sjn