Hardy Banana Plant Profile

Hardy Banana Plant Profile

The Hardy Banana Tree (Musa basjoo) gives a tropical look to temperate landscapes and is a fun conversation piece in the garden. It is also known as the Japanese Banana or the Hardy Fiber Banana. It is, in fact, not a tree at all, but one of the world’s largest herbaceous perennials.

The Hardy Banana can grow in USDA Zones 4 to 10 and is native to Sichuan, China. This plant will produce lots of dramatic leafy growth and if the season is long enough, you will get creamy-yellow flowers that then form small, inedible fruits.

The plant can reach 12 to 18 feet in height. After it flowers, the main pseudostem will die and then send out baby shoots around the mother plant that can be lifted and replanted or gifted to other gardeners.

It prefers full sun, moist soil, and plenty of fertilizer to support the tremendous amount of growth it puts out in one season.

The giant leaves of the Hardy Bamboo can get shredded in high winds. If you find the shredding unattractive, site the plant where it will receive some wind protection.

Hardy Banana is perfectly hardy planted in the ground. It will die back when hit by a killing frost in late autumn. When that happens, cut the plant down to one foot high, surround it with a chicken wire cage or netting, and then pile on hay or leaves or other insulating mulch materials around the plant’s crown.

Here, in the Mid-Atlantic US, many gardeners don’t bother doing the cut back and mulching. They simply let the fallen foliage act as a crown insulator and then clear some of that out as the growing season begins the next spring.

Hardy Banana You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Audio and text by Kathy Jentz

Video and editing by Christine Folivi

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Abutilon Plant Profile

Abutilon Plant Profile

Abutilon (Abutilon spp.) is small shrub or tree known commonly as the Flowering Maple. It has beautiful showy flowers in a wide range of colors -- typically yellows, reds, and oranges -- some with unique markings.

‘Biltmore Ball Gown’ is an heirloom variety from the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC. It has beautiful dangling, tiger-stripe blooms.

Abutilon is a member of the Mallow family and is a relative of Hollyhocks, Okra, and Cotton. It is native to the subtropics and the tropics around the globe. 

It is reportedly deer-resistant, due to the fuzzy leaves, which some people report causes a skin reaction—so wear gloves when handling it.

In our region, Abutilon is not hardy and is sold as an annual or a house plant. You can put them outside for the summer and over-winter them in their containers in a sunny room or greenhouse. If you do this, beware that it is susceptible to whitefly infestations.

They love to be in in bright, indirect sun. Plant them in good, rich soil with plenty of moisture – especially on hot days when it can wilt. It flowers on new growth, so prune as needed to encourage branching.

Abutilon: You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Video and editing by Jessica Harden

Audio and text by Kathy Jentz

Filmed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

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GardenDC Podcast Episode 59: Gardening with Tropical Plants

In this episode, we talk with Marianne Willburn, author of Tropical Plants and How to Love Them, about gardening with tropical plants. The plant profile is on strawberries and we share our upcoming events and local gardening news!

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We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

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Plant Profile: Canna

Canna is an annual tropical flowering plant that lends drama to the landscape with its fabulous foliage and colorful blooms in mid-summer in our Mid-Atlantic region. The foliage can be green, bronze, burgundy, solid, or striped. The flowers can resemble an orchid, iris, or gladiola and have a sunset-like color range from pinks to yellows to oranges to reds.

 All Canna originated in the tropical and sub-tropical Americas. They went to Europe in the mid-16th century and then on to Asia, South Africa, and Australia. Canna breeding took off in these regions and they have returned many wonderful cultivars to our gardens in recent decades.

 Canna can be purchased in three forms: seeds, rhizomes, and potted plants. Due to the Canna yellow streak virus, it is recommended that Canna be started from seed or if rhizomes are offered, you should ensure that they be certified virus-free.

 If you start from seed indoors in early spring, you can then transplant them outdoors when any danger of frost is gone. Canna do best in full sun and moist, rich soil.  If you are satisfied with having only the foliage, Canna can be planted in part-shade conditions.

 Gardeners in our region have found that their Canna may reliably over-winter and return when they are planted against brick walls, along greenhouses, and in south-facing locations. You can give them extra mulch as some insurance against an exceptionally cold winter. You can also pull the plants in October, cut off the stalks, and store their rhizomes in peat moss (or similar material) in a dark, cool spot.

 Canna are useful in the summer garden at the back of mixed borders, in containers, and as a privacy screen. The range of Canna sizes span from dwarf forms around three feet tall to tall standards over 10 feet.

 Two of our favorite varieties are ‘Ermine’, which has a creamy yellow flower and thrives in a wide variety of growing conditions, and ‘South Pacific Orange’, an All-America Selections winner that is a compact grower perfect for containers.

 For more tips about growing Canna, see our plant profile story in the Summer 2012 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine.

 Canna - You Can Grow That!

 The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Taylor Calavetinos

Audio by Kathy Jentz

➤ If you enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our Youtube channel (thank you!)

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Video Wednesday: Overwinter Tropical Bulbs

Here is my latest video demonstrating how easy it is to overwinter your tropical "bulbs" like canna and caladiums.

For those who want to play "spot the kitty," at about 1:40 in you'll start to see cat ears at the bottom right corner of the frame. That is my Santino wanting to know why I'm not petting him.