What is this plant? I am sure it is an easy one but I have never seen it before, it's planted at a pool. I like the looks of it. 

 

Edited July 17, 20196 yr by PalmTreeDude

Musa ensete.

Ensete maurellii is a better known name for it - the Red Abyssinian Banana. 

Pretty common banana. Most big box stores carry them just about everywhere. Not frost hardy. 

Very cool, will they die back and re-emerge in the spring like musa basjoo in z7a?? 

Hi,

I don't believe it will. Overwintering in a large pot is fairly easy though. They get weak without full light in winter, though. 

Chop off the leaves before the first frost.  Put it in a pot with some soil in a cool dark place.  When spring rolls around start watering it and plant it back out after risk of frost is over.

The only bad thing about growing these in pots is that they grow super fast. I bought 2 last September at a local nursery in 3 gallon pots. Since then I re-potted them into 15 gallon pots which they quickly outgrew now they are in 30 gallon pots and are already root bound and I have only had them 10 months! Right now I'm not sure if I want to put them into 45 gallon pots, put them in the ground and let them die in the winter, or just give them away. 

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by HtownPalms

False banana "Ensete maurellii" (relative of true banana from Africa). 

Thank you all for your replies! I have never seen this before until recently, at least not here. I might plant one next Spring. 

On 7/18/2019 at 1:10 PM, Chester B said:

Chop off the leaves before the first frost.  Put it in a pot with some soil in a cool dark place.  When spring rolls around start watering it and plant it back out after risk of frost is over.

Exactly how people in the Northeast grow edible bananas.

I have 6 or 7 of these in the ground now, big box stores carry them around here.  One went from 2' to 12' tall last year and is about 15' tall now.  The others were in more sandy soil and are no more than 6' tall now.  They are pretty quick growers in rich soil with abundant sun and moisture. 

I watched a YouTube video about a guy transplanting them for winter.  He had a 12-15 foot tall one that he chopped off about 6" above ground, dug up the corm, tossed it in a ~25g pot and put it in the garage.  I was pretty impressed!  He had a timelapse part on the video, it looks like it grew a tiny bit while in the garage but was basically dormant.  My outdoor ones took very minimal damage at ~33F last winter, and started noticeably growing when the days were consistently in the 70s.

They don’t like frost but they recover quickly. Last winter mine completely defoliated due to frost. A week later it had a new leaf. It kept growing all winter, unlike my bananas. 

We sell these like candy.