The hardy banana tree

Come October, with pumpkins piled high outside Bert’s Red Apple, you’d expect a garden writer to be talking about autumnal color. 

Not this year. Because while the rest of the neighborhood begins to flame up for the season, I’ll be watching the wide, bright green leaves of a few hardy banana trees stand out in contrast, making the spectacle all the more impressive.

A banana tree in the Pacific Northwest? It’s true. 

Years ago the incredibly inspired and knowledgable garden designer Ben Hammontree summoned me to an estate garden he managed in Medina. He’d just planted what he called a “tropical border.” Ben combined an assortment of things like Magnolia grandiflora, Fatsia japonica, hardy ginger (Hedychium), big hostas, Melianthus major and, most surprisingly, a little known hardy Japanese Banana (Musa basjoo). It was gobsmacking. The look was so effective I expected to see Queen Kapiolani emerge from the thicket and break into a hula.

Since then, this hardy banana has been cropping up in gardens around the Seattle Metro Area with two sightings in Madison Park. Walk down East Garfield Street between East McGilvra Boulevard and 41st Avenue East, and you’ll see the splendid leaves of a banana grove popping above the fence on the south side of the street. Or, stroll down East Lee between 41st and 42nd, and turn north up the alley to see another. 

Interestingly both of these plants are in a corner of their respective rear gardens, where the leaves arch up and out artistically while the stalks remain masked by more regional plantings. And somehow, this works with the same element of surprise that comes with planting a Windmill Palm.

Eighteen months ago, Carolyn Temple bought the banana you’ll see north of East Lee. It was in a one-gallon can. It lived up to its reputation of fast growth. 

Yet this is not a difficult plant to manage. The banana tree dies on the ground with the first hard frost, its fleshy trunks and leaves turning to mush. Cut it off at ground level and stuff it in the compost bin. You’ll think it’s a goner. 

But by mid-spring, buds will shoot out of the ground. By summer the banana will be resplendent in its full, jungled beauty. One stalk soon becomes a grove. Just to be on the safe side, Carolyn cuts the boughs off her Christmas tree and lays them over the roots of her plant for cold weather protection.

Late next spring you’ll have no trouble finding this hardy banana in nurseries or mail order sources. Give it a spot in full sun with rich, quick-draining soil that you keep evenly moist. An application of high nitrogen fertilizer in early spring with a lighter feeding later in the season will encourage a robust performance. When the leaves get big they often split evenly on both sides all along the central vein, giving them an all-the-more tropical appearance. Properly placed, this can be a startling focal point for your garden.

As for the gloriously colorful month of October: this writer apologizes if he has disappointed with his lack of tribute to fall’s vivid colors.

Just figure I’ve gone bananas.

STEVE LORTON is a Madison Park resident and former editor of Sunset Magazine.