AMEN to THAT! I have grown and known of this beautiful small tree for many years and I have never understood why it is not more widely used....go figure! Another plus is that they dont need pruning as their natural form is great!

Well, maybe one reason why, is because it is not sold very many places, at least not my neck of the woods.
I have looked for it since the first time I saw a post of Cweathersby's about it.
Still no luck
jolana

I found one at Calloway's two years ago. It has done wonderfully. Dappled shade and it has tripled in size (5 feet tall and 3.5 feet wide). It lost a lot of bottom leaves in the drought last year, but it has filled in well. It doesn't grow as quickly in full shade, but it is green year round.

I found it here for sixty five bucks. yikes. wish i could find it locally. does it do well in our caliche soil? or should i say "soil" or would it do better in a raised bed?
christina

Here is a link that might be useful: banana shrub

I love scented plants and it sounds wonderful, but this site below say it likes acid soil. So I have the same question. Does anyone know if it will it take the alkaline soil and water we have in San Antonio?

Here is a link that might be useful: Michelia figo

Michelia figo(fuscata) is considered an heirloom plant of the deep south. It was imported from China in the 1700's. My grandmother would bring the flowers in the house and put them in a shallow bowl of water. It would scent the whole house. Most of the old timers would plant them in a southern exposure and before air conditioning, open the windows in the evenings (we all had screens on our windows then) and the scent would drift into the house. It does need slightly acidic soil. You might could amend the planting hole with humus, spangnum peat moss, or compost to turn the area more acidic. It is sometimes prone to scales. Hope it works for you all because it definitely is a keeper. Will grow to small tree size if left unpruned but looks better is kept as a shrub.

Steve

One of our clients has 3 of these 'trees' growing in the back yard. I had never seen, nor heard of them before. They are wonderful.

We have alkaline soil here, and they are as tall as the roof line on the house.

Does anyone know how to root it from cuttings? I might try that.

I know we have never had to deal with a seedling under them.

Janie

Janie, one of the links says it can be grown from cuttings. Maybe your client would let you have a few cuttings to experiment with.

It roots easily from cuttings. I've got about 10 of them that I rooted. Once they grow up a bit I'm going to have one in each corner of my yard to keep company with the other 10 that I bought in years past. I think the tip cuttings worked the best. The main problem that I can see with rooting them is that you probably need to bring them indoors for a winter or two while they are still small.
These didn't used to be sold locally, but this past year I've noticed them at lots of places. Bunches in Texarkana has them, and so does Smotherman's in Longview and The Garden Center in Longview. They aren't expensive. It was $8 at Bunches and 29.99 for a huge one at The Garden Center (we went on a shopping expedition today) I almost bought it since it was as tall as me. You can't even get a big camellia for that price! The nurseries that I mentioned don't usually carry anything rare or unusual.
I've never noticed leaf drop or wilting or anything else from the drought, and mine have not gotten one iota of water except for the first year they were in the ground. I would water them more, just to make them grow faster if for no other reason, but they are not in areas that are easy to get to with a hose.
My soil is extremely acid so I can't speak for the alkaline soil. But it's worth a shot. Especially after what Janie says about the ones she has seen.
There are other lovely kinds of Michelia, but they are really hard to get a hold of. One year at the SFA Mast Arboretum sale I picked up two Michelia maudiaes which bloom at SFA in January and have huge white blooms. Also I found a Michelia yunnanensis in Austin once but it was really expensive (I bought it anyway ...it's not often I get to splurge like that!).

do they really smell just like bananas?
cause if they do i don't know if i'd like that smell 100% of the time

i really love fragrant plants and can't believe i'm not buying the one they say is best!!

They do smell kind of like bananas, but in a really good way. It's not something you smell all of the time because the weather has to warm up to release the fragrance. You usually can't smell them until later in the afternoon. Also, they don't bloom all season long, you get a big flush in the spring and then scattered bloom until the frost. It's always a nice suprise.
The only fragrance that has ever overpowered me is the night blooming jasmine. I've had to take those off of my porch before because they were too strong.
We were talking about cuttings - one of my babies that were rooted last summer bloomed already. I think that is really cool because so many plants have to grow for YEARS before they start blooming. One prime example of that is the wintersweet (Chimonanthes praecox), which is another great fragrant plant for Texas because it requires no care.
Carrie

I called Rainbow Gardens here in San Antonio and they didn't have them :-(

I am going to make arrangements to get some cuttings.

Janie

My banana shrub just finished up it's big spring flush of flowers. This year was the best year yet. I planted mine about 6 years ago and it has always looked healthy but the flowers were few and far between. What a pleasant surprise I had this year!

Rosalee The Garden Center on Bandera Rd has them in stock. I saw them there yesterday, not terribly expensive as I recall. They also have Yesterday, Today, and Tommorow, I know that some people were talking about finding those too.

Michell, thank you! I will check them out on Monday.

If anyone from San Antonio is looking for The Garden Center they are a little inside 1604 on Bandara Rd. I had to look it up as I hardly ever go there ... 'till now :-)

10682 Bandera Rd
P: 210-647-7900

It's on Bandera and the cross street is that Tezel/Prue road change. The only reason I originally went there is because they are one of the only places that sell ladybugs. Rainbow stopped selling them. I really like their selection though and their 3 gallon Belinda's Dream were on sale for $9, the dwarf nandia 1 gal were $4 and japanese boxwood 1 were $5. I'm working on a raw yard so I buy any thing healthy, durable, and on sale!

With praise like this, I have to try one of these. I ordered one from a place called Almost Eden for around eight bucks. They already emailed me to tell when it will be shipped. I hope I have better luck with it than I do with Plumbago. I think I lost the three I planted last spring.
Mary

I lost my plumbago too Mary, and everyone said it would grow anywhere.

Mary, You shouldn't have a problem with the banana shrubs like you would with plumbago. Plumbago isn't really hardy here. But if your banana shrub is really small you may want to pot it and bring it in for the first winter. That's what I did with the ones I rooted.
I love plumbago but they don't really come back for me. Maybe 1 in 8 will come back. There is a lady in town here that has them all over her yard. She says they come back with no problem. Maybe it's cause the other houses block the wind and the streets hold the heat at night, I don't know.

Thanks for the information cweathersby. I will probably need to protect the banana shrub since it will probably be a small plant. I can't expect too much for 8 bucks. The place I had my plumbago in is not really protected. They are so pretty. I will keep trying for a more protected spot and that one in eight that survives. Marti, it does help to know others struggle with plants, too.

I was losing a few plumbago plants every year until I read to pull back any mulch around them in the spring to let the roots warm more quickly. This is more important to do for young plants I think. Since I have doing that they have all come back. But maybe it is because the winters have been milder, but it might be worth trying.

Good luck with the banana shrub. I'll be checking them out here tomorrow!

Roselee, I will try that with the new batch of plumbago I will get this spring. Hope you find the banana shrub.
Mary