So last week at lunch...I was at the grocery store doing the shopping and when I unloaded my cart into the car, I pushed it back to the corral area. There was a cart there that had a plant in it that someone had forgotten.
I pointed it out to an employee and they looked and said "well, if they come back, we will give them another one or refund them". The manager came and said since this was already paid for and did I want it?
I looked at the tag and said "YES!" It's a banana plant, the "Dwarf Cavendish" variety.
It rode back to work with me and then home.
And finally to the farm.
It's a pretty plant, as bananas go we suppose, with the mottled maroon stripes/spots on the leaves. It's doing well and there is a large new leaf about to unfold.
A quick check shows that this is a great variety for our area. It is hardy down to 20 degrees, only matures to between 8' and 10' tall, and will even produce while in a large container.
Once we figure out where to plant this one and the others we got from a coworker, we might end up with a banana plantation in the country, LOL!
who forgets something that big? lucky for you!
ReplyDeleteRight? We figured maybe they had two carts and left it by the car? Who knows. Maybe they bought two or three and forgot one, ha.
DeleteIt's nice it went to a good and appreciative home.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went back to the store two days later, they didn't have any. I asked and a cashier said they threw the rest away. Ugh. I hate that they do that. I know they do it with food too, so wasteful. but we'll give it a good home.
DeleteThat will be a good addition to your farm. I didn't know any bananas were so hardy. I imagine deer like bananas or the leaves.
ReplyDeleteWe wondered about that but found that deer supposedly don't like banana leaves, so I guess we're good there. They are pretty hardy to warm/hot/humid weather (they are tropical) but they don't like freezing for sure. They will get 'burned' leaves in a freeze and will die back in a hard freeze but the underground portion will usually survive and shoot up the next year. We'll see!
DeleteLucky Duck!
ReplyDeleteWe'll gladly give it a permanent home.
DeleteIf it actually produces bananas, I definitely want to see pictures! Geez ... I can't imagine leaving a plant that size in the cart!
ReplyDeleteLucky you, indeed!!
Will see how it goes. Not sure if it's too hot to plant right now. Might keep it and the others we were given, in the containers and on the porch where they are safe and happy and then get them through the Winter. There will be pictures for sure. We've actually eaten bananas from the tree that my coworker gave us these offspring from.
DeleteLucky for you for being at the right place at the right time.
ReplyDeleteThe dark areas on the cigar leaves looks like over fertilization “boron” and iron” can cause these spots.
It may be some sort of ornamental type banana plant
Hmm, that will be interesting to see how the new leaves look moving forward. I'll have to watch for that. It's definitely a fruit bearing variety, we went to the website for the grower, they grow for HEB groceries and they promise it to be fruit bearing. We'll see how it grows, er, goes...ha.
DeleteWow, you found another great freebie! It will be a wonderful addition to your other banana trees.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about it but yeah that should have been a trash to treasure, ha. They threw away the unsold ones a couple days later.
DeleteThrown away! That is so sad and wasteful. They could have marked them down significantly or even put a “Free” sign on them.
DeleteYep, I asked if they had anymore and the guy said "oh they threw those out because they were unsold". Ugh, our society is so wasteful. Sigh.
DeleteWill a banana plant of the dwarf variety produce dwarf bananas? Snow White would like them.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Banana trees like these, dwarf or like the others, are never going to be like the ones we see in the stores. Homegrown bananas from trees are a smaller variety but all have a super intense banana taste. We're looking forward to them.
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