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sandy0225 · 11-08-2005, 08:44 AM

I stumbled across this site by accident. I'm thrilled to see a place where you can also sell your excess plants, not just trade like Gardenweb.
My "trip into insanity" began 5 years when we went on a honeymoon to Cozumel. I loved the beautiful banana tree (with fruit) right outside the window, and so did my husband.
We returned back to home, but I never forgot the banana.
A year later, we went to Gulf Shores, Alabama. On the way out of town, I saw a little nursery with small banana plants for sale. I innocently bought one labeled "dwarf cavendish". I thought "I've always been good with plants".
We put it in a large pot and set it by the hot tub.
We watched that plant grow a new leaf every few days throughout the summer, reaching 5-6 feet tall by fall. We couldn't stand the idea of that beautiful plant dying, so we bought a HID light and put it into the basement.
After fighting the spider mites all winter, in the spring, we put it out directly into the ground.
It responded by growing to around 10 feet tall overall height by fall. That's when I started thinking "dwarf"? are there other kinds?
I met another man in town that had bananas and stored his bananas dormant in his garage. So we dug our large banana and its many pups and stored it in the basement, along with a lot of others I bought on e-bay and traded for on gardenweb over the summer. By middle of winter, we realized that something was wrong--our beautiful bananas were shriveling and losing their diameter and height. We moved them (too late) to another part of the basement that was a little cooler. So in spring we planted lots of banana stumps with little hope. In about a month, we had 2-3 bananas growing from each stump!
We bought a used 10x20 greenhouse, glass lean to type on e-bay and had to dis-assemble it at the original house, north of our town, and re-assemble it the next spring at our house. I could now keep bananas alive, even small ones, but the heat bills were enormous! How to pay the bill and still be a stay at home mom? I got a part time job.
Relatives started asking me for tomato plants in the spring-- everyone in Indiana grows homegrown tomatoes. So I started growing a few more plants than I needed, and also more than my relatives and friends wanted, and selling the extras from my front yard to pay for the heat bill. It worked!I had to plant two plants of each kind of heirloom tomato so that I'd have seed to plant the next year, and I had way too many bananas pups. Enter the farmers' market... Now I had a self-supporting hobby. I quit my part time job.
Now I am starting a small business, opening in the spring, selling bananas, tropicals, pond plants, and heirloom tomatoes. And I get to be a stay-at-home mom instead of a gone all day mom!
And that big grow light? it's down in the basement babysitting my pond plants which will be for sale in the spring. And a struggling large victoria waterlily, which I hope to carry over.

11-08-2005, 08:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
sandy0225 Northern Tropics sandy0225's Photo Gallery Location: Muncie, Indiana zone 5 Find me on the map! Zone: zone 5 Name: Sandy Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,718 BananaBucks : 362,758 Feedback: 31 / 97% Said "Thanks" 38 Times Was Thanked 1,801 Times in 682 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 9 Times	my introduction (sorry so long) I stumbled across this site by accident. I'm thrilled to see a place where you can also sell your excess plants, not just trade like Gardenweb. My "trip into insanity" began 5 years when we went on a honeymoon to Cozumel. I loved the beautiful banana tree (with fruit) right outside the window, and so did my husband. We returned back to home, but I never forgot the banana. A year later, we went to Gulf Shores, Alabama. On the way out of town, I saw a little nursery with small banana plants for sale. I innocently bought one labeled "dwarf cavendish". I thought "I've always been good with plants". We put it in a large pot and set it by the hot tub. We watched that plant grow a new leaf every few days throughout the summer, reaching 5-6 feet tall by fall. We couldn't stand the idea of that beautiful plant dying, so we bought a HID light and put it into the basement. After fighting the spider mites all winter, in the spring, we put it out directly into the ground. It responded by growing to around 10 feet tall overall height by fall. That's when I started thinking "dwarf"? are there other kinds? I met another man in town that had bananas and stored his bananas dormant in his garage. So we dug our large banana and its many pups and stored it in the basement, along with a lot of others I bought on e-bay and traded for on gardenweb over the summer. By middle of winter, we realized that something was wrong--our beautiful bananas were shriveling and losing their diameter and height. We moved them (too late) to another part of the basement that was a little cooler. So in spring we planted lots of banana stumps with little hope. In about a month, we had 2-3 bananas growing from each stump! We bought a used 10x20 greenhouse, glass lean to type on e-bay and had to dis-assemble it at the original house, north of our town, and re-assemble it the next spring at our house. I could now keep bananas alive, even small ones, but the heat bills were enormous! How to pay the bill and still be a stay at home mom? I got a part time job. Relatives started asking me for tomato plants in the spring-- everyone in Indiana grows homegrown tomatoes. So I started growing a few more plants than I needed, and also more than my relatives and friends wanted, and selling the extras from my front yard to pay for the heat bill. It worked!I had to plant two plants of each kind of heirloom tomato so that I'd have seed to plant the next year, and I had way too many bananas pups. Enter the farmers' market... Now I had a self-supporting hobby. I quit my part time job. Now I am starting a small business, opening in the spring, selling bananas, tropicals, pond plants, and heirloom tomatoes. And I get to be a stay-at-home mom instead of a gone all day mom! And that big grow light? it's down in the basement babysitting my pond plants which will be for sale in the spring. And a struggling large victoria waterlily, which I hope to carry over. __________________ Sandy Burrell Northern Tropics Greenhouse 1501 East Fuson Road Muncie, IN 47302 www.northerntropics.com specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~ check out our new online store at our website!