hi the chinese yellow banana is quite happy to flower without any leaves though it possibly wont look as good.

Well, if it can flower without leaves, I hope it does flower now! It is surrounded by the leaves of scores of pups which are growing their first leaves of the year, so would still look fine if it can manage flower with no leaves.

So fingers crossed!

As I understood it, Musella lasiocarpa will only flower if it bulks up enough to make a big plant, i.e. keeps growing all year round. I read that plants that die back in winter will not reach flowering size. (I'd love to be proved wrong!)

Well, It has just put up a paddle leaf, like it is going to flower, but it loses it's leaves each winter, but not it's thick trunk. Here is a picture of it year before last (centre picture) - sorry, I can't find any more recent photo's, but it was bigger still last year.

Here is a link that might be useful:

My musella is now putting up more smaller and smaller leaves which are very different shaped to normal, and the leaf bases which the trunk is consisted of are getting tighter and stretched.

It does not grow all year round, but is a big plant now.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:408646}}

How is it progressing?

On a slightly less spectacular note (dull and maroon as opposed to beautiful and yellow) I noticed yesterday that my Dwarf Cavendish is flowering! The shock made me squawk like a startled parrot and fall over backwards (I had just downed a couple of beers). It lives in the flat that I am slowly in the process of moving out of and is quite neglected. It gets watered only sporadically and is rarely fed. I know it's not a rare event, but it's the first time I've had a banana blooming and I'm quite excited.

Hi Ornata,

My Musella now has a quite distinct bud forming but still is not open. I think it will probably take another 2 to 3 weeks to open to a proper flower though it is now a very definite flower bud.

Wow! I wish my dwarf cavendishs would flower. Mine just grow leaves and more leaves and pups and more pups, but never flowers! Do you have a photo?

I'll try to get a photo this weekend. Perhaps the reason my one is flowering is because it's been neglected? I've had it for seven years, it's pot-bound (even though it's in a huge pot), and possibly that fact combined with the sporadic watering/feeding has triggered its "Help! I'm going to die! Must reproduce!" response? I have a work colleague who has numerous plants in her office, all in small pots, never fed and often very dry, that are constantly in panic-flowering mode. (Not, of course, that I'm advocating treating plants that way, especially bananas!)

Hi Ornata,

You are probably right that they flower easier if neglected. My Velutina don't even flower until they reach 8 ft! I think I give them too much root room and too much fertilizer.

Any luck with the photo of Dwarf Cavendish flower?

My bud is on this link. It is getting bigger, but still not opened.

Here is a link that might be useful: