I bought 3 last year. First time for me. I bought middle size that was offered. Gonna start them in pots in a couple of weeks.

I found out in my zone it is rather something to get a bloom.

It's really amazing you got one to bloom in your zone. I grew some taro a few years ago and the biggest leaf got to 2 ft but then with the drought and high temperatures, it went dormant.

It was amazing. I had people coming over to witness it for themselves.

I don't think many people in my zone can get their elephant ears to bloom so that's definitely amazing.

Guess they must need a pretty long season to develop flowers. But it also depends upon the variety - this one is Blue Hawaii, and it blooms with nice yellow flowers every year. It's not a huge one, only gets about 4ft. tall, so maybe that's a factor - it gets to mature size faster than the big ones.

She wants to be outside in the ground so

Begging you all's pardon...someone said elephant ears grow from bulbs? As far as I know they have tubers, not bulbs.

She wants to be outside in the ground so much I have to keep her from jumping out the pot . Expecting a 32 degree low here tonight had to put everything back up .

@Rainbow

Thank you, papa! Those are tubers, not bulbs!

Even though they are not True Bulbs we often call them bulbs.

Sorry for getting off subject. I have bananas underneath the house laying down that are starting to grow.

Been reading with great interest. I have two bananas I have had in pots. It's time for them to go into the ground. And I have all shade in my yard!! The bananas were given to me and I thought they would do well in pots. But they are itching to get out of the 5 gallon pots and into the ground. They told me so. I am thinking about planting them into the low spots in the forest that have always gotten a bit too much water. Palmettos grow naturally back there. And of course there is tons of compost on the forest floor.

What I am concerned about is reproducing. I won't be active with it 100%, basically leaving it on it's own to flourish in the forest, already dense with Oak, Sweetgum, Tallow, Hickory Nut, and Elm. Will I eventually end up with a banana plantation??

Will they really grow well in that much shade? I am a real newby just asking.

The Palmetto need full sun so i am assuming the Banana will get enough? No?

Cheryl, if your Palmettos are doing well in your forest, then they must be getting a bit of sun.

I just checked with my hubs...he says bananas will grow in shade with a little bit of sun and lots of water. We have several banana trees...they multiply like rabbits...well, not quite.

So go for it...plant your bananas in the forest and soon you'll have a plantation.

Cheryl, I just re-read your post, you are concerned about the bananas reproducing as you won't be able to monitor 100%. One thing about banana trees: once the fruit is cut from the tree, the mother dies and kind of just melts away.

There will be pups, but they could easily be cut/thinned out. And if you decide to transplant pups, plant them about 10 feet away from each other to give them room to grow as their leaves could get quite large. And if you keep transplanting new pups, then you'll have a plantation.

Cheryl, it may well be determined by what variety of banana you have. If they are fruiting bananas they will need full sun but if you are only growing them for ornamental purposes you should be fine. Personally, I do not find the full sized ones easy to thin out, at least the ones I had were not. But, they just made a larger and larger clump, they did not spread like weeds so thinning was only necessary when I wanted to share a piece.

I was told by a Mexican friend who had a banana grove in Mexico that once they harvested fruit from the trees they would cut them off about 2 to 3ft from ground and they would start new growth from there. And would fruit again.