Who remembers maybe 10 years ago when there were so many cool ornamental bananas available? Must laterita, Musa Okinawa, Musa Hot Pink, Musa velutina, Musa 'Canary' and many many others? Where are they now? Never see any for sale anymore. This is the only one I still have, Musa laterita, the 'Bronze Banana'. Anyone else have any others?

I had not thought about it but M. velutinas were weeds at my last home, they sprouted everywhere. It was such a beautiful but pesky plant I have not looked for another.

Since I have been perusing Etsy for fruit trees I decided to check out the bananas. Many are to be found especially this "not in my lifetime" photoshopped blue java.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/8...
My Ice Cream was so slow to come back this year I thought I had lost it from the late freeze. It's only about 6 ft tall as opposed to it's normal 15. The plants by the river are going gangbusters though, maybe they are getting some water from there. I bought a small dwarf Cavendish last spring, it's potted, I think I'll bring it inside to see if I can get it to fruit next yr.

Hello all
I'm very new to plants and a friend of mine sent me a heliconia . It was just the shoot which is pretty much the length of this vase. I planted it about 2 months ago . I water it once a week as directed but it's looking dry . I even sprayed soap water on it as I was nervous there might me mites eating it. Any suggestions on how I could get this up and going would be greatly appreciated. Oh and I planted in potting mix -and peat moss

I think you may have planted it upside down

What?! The end was just a round shoot . The top that is shown has the flowers on the sides . They haven't bloomed

Or no?

Its really hard to tell what you have done. If the bottom end was 'round', that was the bottom of the rhizome. Heliconia often have all the roots removed after harvesting a rhizome, especially when sent through the mail, because the old roots always doe off and the plant has to resprout a new set of roots.

Those are not the flowers you are looking at. Those look like new shoots for new stems. Those should have been buried at least right at soil level. Heliconia 'flowers' come out between the leaves of individual, mature stems. Not from the base of the plant. Like this


Generally when a single rhizome is dug up and cut off the body of the main plant, it will take 12-24 months for any blooms. This is because #1 the rhizome has to establish and grow a new root system #2 Heliconia generally do not bloom *at least the larger varieties) until they are at least 12 months of age and #3 your plant has no leaves...it is not growing or photosynthesizing...it cannot produce flowers

Pic of ornamental banaba… I just luv then here. But they don't do well after Jan in the greenhouse they get white flies like crazy.. so now they treated them as annuals.

Ok thank you . Yes the bottom was round and flat . What could I do differently? I might take it to a nursery too for help

I would do that. It may not be viable anymore