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Ornamental Bananas
Musa ensete are ornamental Banana trees with inedible fruit. They are highly valued in the garden for their large tropical looking leaves. Banana plants are very quick growers through the warmer months of the year if given plenty of water and food. They grow upwards on one stem with the fleshy leaf stalks forming the stem of the Banana plant. After a few years the plant will put its energy into producing flowers and fruit. At this stage the leaves will begin to look tired and un thrifty. As the seed matures the whole plant dies. Within a few months shots or pups will arise from the ground under the dead plant. They can be lift in the ground to form a thicket of stems. Or lifted and planted out in separate areas. Alternatively pot up the pups to give away.
Banana plants require space in which to spread their enormous leaves. Their root system spreads underground also and forms a dense thicket of water sucking roots so Bananas can be unfriendly to neighbouring plants, crowding them out.
Grow ornamental Bananas in the sun or semi shade. I grow mine on the east side of the house where they are sheltered from the westerly winds. Strong winds ruin the large leaves by ripping them to bits. Even the unfurling new leaves are caught by strong winds and break as they bend under the force of gales .Wind is the major consideration when positioning a Banana tree as battered leaves are an ugly sight. They are easily removed and the plant will soon grow new leaves but if winds are a constant Bananas are not a good choice. During the severe easterly gale storm we experienced last July My two Banana plants were so thrashed about that I decided to experiment on them by removing most of their stems. I wanted to see if the remaining stem would grow new leaves. Before the storm occurred I was considering cutting the plants back in this way to reduce their height. First I removed all of the leaves. With a pruning saw I cut through their stems leaving a 60cm high stump. The 2m sections of stem that had been removed were incredibly heavy. They are full of water, as are the sheaths that are the main part of the leaves. Leaves are a nuisance in compost bins as they take forever to break down. Also they are loathe to burn in a fire. I throw the leaves at the back of the shrubbery where they eventually break down and return to the soil. When the warm weather arrived in September new leaves emerged. The first leaves were small and damaged from by cutting action but subsequent leaves were normal sized. The plants are now luxuriant and almost up to the same height as they were a year ago. So an excellent way to rejuvenate tired and tattered specimens.
I have found ornamental Banana plants remarkably tolerant to frost damage. The leaves soon blacken and go mushy after frosts but leave the mushy leaves on the plants where they will protect the main stem from damage .Come spring new leaves emerge and the plant quickly grows back.
My two plants are red leafed variants of the green leafed Musa ensete. As they have been grown from seed they are both different. This difference wasn’t obvious when I bought the plants. Young plants have very red leaves and all look the same. But as they grow into maturity their differences are marked. One plant is smaller growing, but more spreading in habit with redder leaves. The other is more robust and upright growing with silvery green leaves, edged with red. Both plants have prominent red ribs on their leaves.
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