Christian

As banana growers we do know this thing called winter-blues, don’t we? We quake for months in our boots because we are worried that the plants that looked so good during summer don’t get through the tough cold months of the year. Or is it only me that quakes – the result of a constantly worrying mind? Well, whether I worry or not, occasionally some plants don’t make it, and strangely enough it always seems to be the hard-to-get ones that are soft and mushy at the beginning of the season.

So I dream of paradise…

And my paradise is very conducive to growing bananas, in fact it is quite tropical. So I live and dream and dream and live, until I realise: “It was just all a dream”. And the bananas are still here struggling through the cold.

Happiness is all in the mind, and I am happy when my bananas are happy, so I thought “Why not send the plants on holidays?”. Somewhere warm… But where??

And along comes Tog and he talks to me about putting together a home for bananas. Many different types, and all in a nice warm place. A place that people can visit, where bananas can be observed and studied, and above all being kept from getting lost.

I can tell you that when I get some seeds of a hard to get species I do worry a lot. First about getting them to germinate, then about not loosing the plant. I always wished for a place where one of them could live and be looked after, so if ever something would happen to my one here in England, then the other one is save and is not lost to cultivation.

So Tog’s idea about starting what he calls “ Ladang Musaceae ” – a garden for bananas (Tog: What does Ladang actually mean???) – seemed ideal. The plan now is the following: We will be sharing plant material for conservation, display, and for fun (a lot of that!!). Even so as a whole I am not too bothered about this detail, he promised me that actual ownership of the plants in question would actually remain with me, which is great, but obviously he will have access to off-shoots and seeds. Together we can monitor the plant, take pictures and answer questions easier and faster then we could ever do in a cool country like England . (Honestly, what are the chances of seeing a large growing banana flower here, ever??!?)

So basically we are trying to share plant material as we are already sharing the mutual interest in those plants. Isn’t that a good thing?

Christian