Lawn and Garden

This  Tuesday : lawn and garden is all about the blooms in my yard. F This  orange blooms of the banana tree is a happy site. 

Happy Banana   Lovers Day ! 

Banana tree  plant bloom.

Bananas are tropical, rapidly growing herbaceous perennials that produce fleshy trunks called pseudostems from underground rhizomes. Winter cold kills the pseudostems in most areas of Louisiana, but some bananas' rhizomes have enough cold tolerance to survive the winter. A good layer of mulch over the rhizomes can help them survive.

Bananas are grown throughout Louisiana as an ornamental to give a tropical affect to the landscape. North Louisiana residents are limited to a few cold-hardy varieties; these are frequently planted near buildings to give additional warmth. Residents in south Louisiana have a wider selection of banana varieties and fewer climate limitations.

Many gardeners want to harvest bananas from their own trees. Extreme efforts are sometimes made to make this fantasy come true. These efforts rarely bare fruit in north and central Louisiana.

Banana trees in south Louisiana grown below Interstate 10 frequently produce edible fruit; however, the size, shape and quality of the fruit may vary greatly from tree to tree.

Cold weather normally kills the leaves and trunk of most banana plants during the winter. During mild winters and in protected areas, the trunk sometimes survives. If the trunk survives the winter with only the outer layers of the trunk being frozen, flowers are often produced.

Most banana trees are cut down in the wintertime when a freeze browns the leaves, because people think they are dead or may just want to get rid of the brown foliage. Even though the leaves may be brown, the trunk can be alive.

In March, determine which, if any trees, may have been killed to the ground. Those that are dead will have become soft and mushy because of decay and will not stand up when given a moderately strong push. Any dead plants should be cut at ground .