Ensete ventricosum - by post

I have just received 2 young Ensete ventricosum plants (pictured) delivered by the postman. I bought these via eBay from 'The Lost World Nursery' for £6 each. I'm quite surprised how well these plants survived being boxed and posted.

Ensete ventricosum (sometimes referred to as Musa ensete) is also known by the common name: the Abyssinian Banana.

I've grown this banana for more than 10 years and, up to now, always from seed. The seeds, available from the 'Jungle Seeds' website are not too difficult to germinate but you have to sow very early in the year to get a worthwhile plant for the summer. The plants will become enormous by their second year, I get them through the winter by digging them up and putting in my temporary plastic greenhouse. I have, in the past, managed to get them through winter in situ wrapped in fleece. By the third year the plants are just too big to dig up.

Due to my own laziness this is the first year that I do not have any overwintered plants so I hope by buying plants rather than planting seeds that I will get reasonable sized plants by the end of the summer.

I think the plain green Ensete ventricosum is my favorite Ensete mainly due to its sheer size. There is a red leafed variety: Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii', this plant cannot be raised from seed and was quite difficult to find but recently B&Q have begun to stock it! The red leaf variety, Maurelli, is a very spectacular plant although not as fast growing or as sturdy as the plain green variety. I must admit to being a little sad that Maurelii is now so freely available, I used to think I had a fairly unique plant!

We will see (on this blog) how my new plants progress and I will be posting some more pictures and information on the Ensete ventricosum varieties.