This winter was great at sorting out winter hardiness of several plants, and one of the nice surprises was Musa ‘Helen’s Hybrid’…a cross of Musa sikkimensis with nice reddish leaf backs. Here it is today at 10′ tall…survived with no mulch or protection.
Hello. Could you please tell me which hardiness zone this is in? And when you say ‘survives what exactly do you mean? Did only the root survive or the whole plant? Were leaves burned? How cold was it during winter? I’m trying to grow this banana and there’s so little info to be found on the internet so I would really appreciate if you could provide some.
Sure. Winter hardiness with a perennial means it returns the following spring. Some perennials are evergreen, while most are deciduous. In climates with warm winters, some plants may stay evergreen, which would become deciduous with colder temperatures. All bananas are deciduous with temperatures below freezing (32F). A winter hardiness listing of Zone 7b means that an established plant in the proper conditions will survive 5 degrees F, and return the following spring.
Thanks for the answer. I know what hardiness zones are, I was just asking which zone was this banana in the picture in. If it’s 7b, that’s pretty cold. I live in a climate that’s the equivalent of US zone 9b or 10a, depending of the year, so is it reasonable to expect that the tree at least won’t die back down to the ground in my climate? I’ve seen videos of banana trees fruiting in climates like mine after surviving the winter suffering only leaf damage with the trunk staying green.
Correct. It should be evergreen unless you see a hard frost, and it would bounce back quickly from that.
Any chance you’d offer this or M. “Picasso” again in the (near) future?
We would love to do so, but must first either find a seed source or build a tissue culture lab.