This October marks our first flowering of Musa aurantiaca, a little-known species from the Arunchal-Pradesch and Assam region of India, into surrounding Myanmar and Tibet. We love that both the flower and developing bananas are both bright red. So far, our plant has sailed through winter temperatures of 11 degree F, with no problems. Thanks to Alabama banana bud, Hayes Jackson for sharing this with us as we continue to trial more cold hardy banana varieties in our zone 7b/8a garden.
Do you think it would grow at Atlantic Beach? We have a house across the street from the beach and our back yard has high dunes. I would like to plant some banana trees for interest along the back of the property before the dune/forest starts. Somewhat protected from wind and salt.
I see some thriving in Raleigh.
Without visiting the site, it should be great there. Bananas grow best in rich, compost ammended soil that never gets extremely dry.
Any issue with squirrels eating the fruit?
Not that we’ve ever seen or heard.
Rated: Ornamental! Rated: Pleasantly Edible???
We were gifted with a non-edible banana that had a mission to take over East Tennessee. It took almost 3 years to permanently remove it. How aggressive is this one, and how edible?
The only Musa species that we ever grew that we would consider aggressive is the running Musa intinerans. Nothing else compares. Musa basjoo will make a nice size patch, but pales in comparison. All others grow in much tighter clumps.
Musa itinerans is the only running hardy banana. Musa basjoo makes a large mass, but none of the others should be a concern.
Fabulous!
This is actually Musa markkuana (formerly Musa velutina subsp. markkuana). I gave the plant to Hayes years ago.
We have such a plant from Hayes, originating from you, but that tag is on a different plant. Evidently when the plant changed hands a few years ago, the tags got switched. Thanks for the catch.