Friday 19 June 2009

Banana Trees & Better Butterflies......


If you've been reading this blog for a long time, you'll know that I have a penchant for growing tropical plants even though I live in rural Hampshire. Last year my two banana plants reached a size which made it impossible for them to come indoors for the winter and I was very concerned about them both, especially after some early snow in October all but destroyed the most tender of the two, the one I grew from seed many years ago. So my other half, who currently works in Belgium building racing car engines and has a large, rather empty and amply windowed apartment, suggested he take them back with him to overwinter there. I had also given him a small purple banana plant for his very own that I had rescued from the casualty corner of the local garden centre.

Well, all three thrived in the warm centrally heated atmosphere and grew...and grew...and grew. Spring came and we started thinking it might be time to bring them back to the garden - easier said than done. Now none of them would fit in a car, and business trips over with the company van were either in totally the wrong part of England or non-existent. The bananas started to falter having gone so long indoors and not having any breezes to strengthen their tall stems.

But at last today someone had a trip over with an empty van and the route sort of went past our area, so at the crack of dawn this morning the bananas were finally delivered home. I've just put the largest one back in his place by the pond, splinted up the purple one which is now over 6 ft tall and leaves are starting to break, and am still plucking up the courage to totally rearrange all the plants on the patio to accommodate the third. The garden wouldn't look amiss if a couple of monkeys swung through the trees and a parrot landed on the lawn....


I wasn't entirely happy with the necklace I made the other day - I am very impatient and instead of waiting until I had bought the cord I really wanted, I cobbled it together with some not-quite-so-nice cord I already had. After wearing it yesterday and being annoyed by my own half-baked efforts, I bought some decent cord and restrung it...which is what I should have done in the first place. I'm a Sagittarius....impetuous to a fault! Sorry for the rubbish photo - it's very hard to take a picture on your own of a necklace when you are wearing it!

Next on the agenda - more felt puppy sets, a portrait to put the finishing touches to, and yet more potatoes......

3 comments:

Magpie Magic said...

Love your garden, my kind of garden, lots and lots of plants. The new version of the necklace looks great too!

Soggibottom said...

I like to grow different plants.
Bananas are a favorite of mine. They do really well down here in Devon. Except I lost two last Winter, even though they were wrapped and covered in a heated greenhouse. I now have another two,I grew from seed. These two are really slow growing little devils. Or maybe I am being too kind, not wanting to lose them. My neighbour and I have come to a deal, she is going to over winter them and I will give her one of them. I never mind as long as someone else gives them the same love as I do. You certainly love your bananas. x x x

Soggibottom said...

I also have loads of new palms growing from seed from my parent plant . It flowered for the first time last year. Email me and I'll send you some of this years seed.
Michele x x x