Xerophyte--Excellent photo and I totally agree that it has great color coordination!! Curtis--I will preface the following that I live in Zone 9, but... I have grown Ensete Ventricosum 'Maurelli' for a couple years, two in very large clay pots poolside and one in the ground. All three not only survived, but were totally 'uneffected' by a freak snow we had last December (3 inches, but melted the next day...). I am a firm believer in feeding all my plants Epsom salts every month, increasing the dosage in the fall to help with any chance of a cold snap down here. (That and making sure they are well watered a day or two BEFORE the cold snap). I grow many other tropicals, including many plumeria, and Epsom salts help when I have to push their tolerance of a cold snap. My problem...a huge windstorm snapped one of the 'Maurelli's' right at the base!!! It was a good 6 foot+!!! Other bananas would grow back with pups at the base...does anyone know if a 'Maurelli' will?????? It was just beautiful with a red vibrant color, and so lush. It just happened to be at the wrong spot at the corner of the house at the pool decking's edge when the wind knocked the crap out of it! So bummed...someone plz give me news it will grow back!! Thanks! ~Mary Jane

Oh I will get it under the house one way or another..lol. it just gets so heavy and the root ball is large. My largest Eucalyptus is sp. gunnii I believe. I have a cinerea but it dies back to a stump and resprouts. The E. gunnii is 20 feet tall. Our Lowe's has carried lots of named varieties of bananas this year and it has been so hard not to buy any but I think I am going to try and just keep a few banana plants and give them special care from year to year.

Arctic... inspiring. Now I want to do some tropical ones outside too. I have a cellar that would be great for storage. That's where I put my brugmansias during the winter. Do they pup often? I notice the other pics you had of where they were dug just looked like singles. I'm up in the mountains of WV, not too far from the ski resorts. we don't get as low in the negatives like you do though, but it's bad enough :) Forever, Your pic looks great too! I love that fact that I can dig the EEs and just toss them back out again each year, but this has not been a good storage year for my illustrus ee (black and green) it doesn't really form much of a pseudobulb at all so it dries up so easily, but yet rots too easily too. I've kept dozens of them for years, but when I took them out this spring I was able to find four or five little pieces alive. I always store them in a mixture of potting mix and saw shavings. Didn't work well this year though. Chris

What a great picture, even while young they are striking looking. I overwintered a 'basic' ensete last winter, north kitchen window with bright light which maybe got a bit of sun toward late winter and early spring. Anyways, I watered very sparingly and sprayed once in a while with neem oil and water/detergent as a precaution. Also, if the plant is near a forced hot air vent, that's not a good idea as that would encourage spider mites. you can use an heat vent air deflector though. The one thing is the new leaves the plant develops indoors in winter look nice, but I don't think they're as strong as the ones the plant develops outdoors in better light. Thus, when the plant went back outdoors in spring the wind easily tore the leaves and the sun burnt some of them, but by the time summer came it all but replaced all those indoor leaves with stronger leaves. The only thing is I grew my ensete in a slightly bigger pot this summer and it was fairly rootbound, didn't gain that much in height. This winter I'm trying to store the root in the basement which should be interesting as my basement isn't that cold. Glen