small tropical garden

Do you leave your banana and your protea with the same people? Buffy's found something to investigate! That banana is so huge it must weigh a ton!.

Hi Lori, I put the banana in my inlaw's basement. I dig it up, but my husband and son have to lift it out and drop it in a pot. This year I'll probably only save one of the pups and let the big one die, that way I don't have to listen to any belly aching from them. I'll be able to lift and pot up one of the small off-shoots myself..! Buffy loves to go in that flower bed and use all the driftwood and stumps as her personal cratching posts.She's a mess... but I love that cat to death.!

Have you never thought about leaving the banana in place Fl ? There's a guy in the UK who overwinters his bananas in the ground. You cut off all the leaves to the trunk,wrap the trunk with bubble wrap and secure with tape leaving the top of the trunk uncovered.
Get socketed clayware drainage pipe sections , slip the first one over the trunk female end down then pack the space around the trunk with straw. Continue this up the length of the trunk until covered then pack the top one with straw to cover the cut end of the trunk.
You need to protect the top from rain/snow/frost etc so cover with a terracotta pot or saucer without drainage holes.
Once the threat of frosts pass you can unwrap and the leaves will regrow quickly as the trunk has conserved it's energy all winter.
Just an idea but you might have to research it for your area. Good luck

Love Banana trees& I see Pussy Cat Flcrazy :)

I have a banaa tree that is getting on the large size. I've been thinking about trying what maple has posted. Letting the large tree die and saving the pups is a good idea too. I really hate to let the big one go.

This blood banana is only hardy to zone 9, so I doubt it would make it, but you
never know, wouldn't hurt to try it .I do something similar with my
regular musa bajoo banana, that is ground hardy to zone 7. It will die back to the ground but send up shoots in spring. But I'm greedy and impatient, so I take some plastic chicken fencing, making a circle around the banana stalk, (diameter of about 2 1/2 ft), then I take my bamboo stakes I already have in the yard and weave it through the small openings in the fencing and push the end of the stake in the ground. I pack the inside of the circle with leaves that have fallen off the trees, I fill it about three quarters of the way up the trunk. (the heart of the banana is about half way up the trunk).I then take a large plastic trash bag and wrap it around the outside of the fence, and secure it by punching small holes in the bag and tieing the bag to the fencing with old bread ties.I leave it that way until spring. So by May I already have a six foot tall banana tree, instead of a 2 inch pup, just making it's way through the soil.

heavenly days! I thought I was engaging in hyperbole when I said you lived in the Banana Belt...lol. Hope you pull it off...Tell Hubby you need one of those little Kubota lifters...hahaha. would save his back afterall. Just imagine what you could do with that.
Buffy really knows whose use those driftwood stumps were brought into the yard for. Cats just know these things.

FL this Tropical border is Fantastic,Amazing even.. and thanks for the tips on looking after my banana this winter..

Thanks ever so much Youngdaisydee, your comments are greatly appreciated . Best of luck with your banana, I'm sure you'll take expert care of it !