endive

Hi everybody

This is my first post. I volunteer for a community gardens in South London which occupies the site of the old parks nursery for Brockwell Park, Lambeth (brockwellparkcommunitygreenhouses.org.uk). The site still has two large greenhouses and about 100m of undeveloped cold/heated frames.

We do a wide range of community gardening/food growing activities on site with volunteers, local schools and growing groups and the local community, and a particular interest of mine is building up a collections of fast growing ornamental plants and lesser known food plants for community plantings on and off our site. So if anybody has any spares locally: too many seedlings or acute basjoo fatigue, let me know and we might be able to recycle them to local community plantings.

I'm also a bit banana obsessed.

As for Bananas I have grown

These are my experiences so far

Musa "Chini Champa" grew steadily the first year in a greenhouse from a 2l Amulree plant. Not the fastest growing and responded to heat. Trunk remained green in a cold greenhouse through a mild London winter, but plant failed to regrow in spring. A friend of mine tried to do what he saw his mum in Jamaica doing to sulking banana rhizomes and that was kinda that.

Musa "Dwarf Cavendish", a brief cold snap got to our greenhouse plants before they were taken indoors and that was that. No hardyness at all to our small plants.

Musa "Dwarf Orinoco", a 2l Amulree plant bought spring 2009 has made good growth this year in a greenhouse

Musa "Malbhog", A 2l plant arrived as an unrooted rhizome from Amulree this spring. Took a month to get going and is now the same size as the Dwarf Orinoco above

Musa velutina, had a rash of these last spring as 150 seeds extracted from a fresh banana from a london butterfly house emerged like cress about three months after sowing directly from a fresh banana. Seedlings grew fast and one has flowered in its second year in what looks like a 2l (or smaller) pot. May be hardy when established but none recovered from a light frost in a cold greenhouse despite being transfered to a warm room soon after. Not all the stem had been killed at this point.

Musa yunnanensis, Sown as seed (rarepalmseeds) in January 2008, plants have grown well, frosted small plants (2-3 feet tall), kept in a cold greenhouse were brought back in doors as house plants and rapidly came back into growth from what was left of the trunk. The tallest plant was over 9 foot (including emerging leaves )with pot by the end of its second season. Responds to warm weather/greenhouse coddling but grows steadily outdoors in a middling to warmish London summer. Some seedlings started suckering within 6 months from germination.

A 2 year old plant kept on the dry side did not do well kept frost free (just) in a cold greenhouse. Looks like the pseudostems/rot in rhizome have mostly died back during this year's long cold spell.

Musella lasiocarpa, kept dry and in a small pot survived fine in a cold greenhouse through what by recent years' standards was a cold winter.


Canna turkheimeri: not strictly a banana but still a musales. Amazing canna exploding from seeds (Chilternseeds) sown in February. Very architectural with narrow pointed leaves and an almost strelitzia-like habit.

Fabrice