Excuse my excitement, but "I don't get out much!!!"
Early in '04, I bought a bunch of bananas (pun not really intended!) off of eBay (from A and B Tropicals). Actually, they have their own website (and I'd link to 'em if I felt like figuring out HTML code - you'll just have to Copy and Paste!). http://www.aandbtropicals.com. Terrific People there (and they'll actually respond if you have any issues or problems with your plants).
Anyway, I think I had about half-a-dozen banana plants in pots, lined up along the SE-facing sliding glass door thru the end of winter. Come springtime, you practically needed a machete to get outside!!!
I ended up planting all of them in the ground, outside and left them to fend for themselves. Some of 'em "made it." Some died, while others were "questionable."
The "survivors" included Super Dwarf Cavendish, Goldfinger, and Saba (who was planted in a very bad spot! I grossly underestimated how big she was gonna get!!!).
All have since "pupped" (madly, even - I'm up to at least a dozen plants!). None had produced bananas.
Until Now!!!
Surprisingly, after last winter (and two weeks of below freezing temps overnight), I thought for sure that the bigger nannas gave up. Super-Dwarf was planted closest to the house, and was most protected - and he died (but his pups survived). Saba and Goldfinger looked like "goners."
The Goldfinger Mama Plants did die, but some pups came back this spring.
The Saba Mama Plant... Amazingly... Not only survived (and put out several pups), but one evening (June 22 - to be precise), I'd wandered outside, looked up and discovered THIS:
(Oh, BTW, Click on the Pic to see a bigger version - I had to shrink 'em to keep 'em within page boundaries!)
