Kerrpe

TOTAL banana newbie here, just moved from OH to TX and discovered a whole new world of gardening!

This healthy little fellow came with the house. We have temporarily given him a fairly shady spot under a tree, but I am thinking he needs a better location. Trouble is, I don't know what he is?

Banana? Or Bird of Paradise?

Hoping for a banana....

Mark Hall

It could even be a Canna !

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

Gabe15

ya looks like a Canna to me too.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Kerrpe

Well, that rhymes with banana.

Oh well. Thanks very much, guys! I'll have another plant to learn about now!

MediaHound

Looks like yours has tasty leaves.
And those of us that have (or had) cannas know that the leaves are very tasty to bugs

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Kerrpe

I wondered about that. This house had been vacant for 5 years and the yard had become jungle, so I just assumed that was from lack of anyone caring for it. Will watch for bugs.

tlturbo

I have a bunch of cannas and I'm about ready to give up on them in S FL. Those damn leaf rollers totally destroy them and I have the yard sprayed every 2 months. Nothing chews on the nanner leafs though.

MediaHound

Same here, I disposed of hundreds of canna bulbs this year.
All I have left is the Stuttgart.

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the flying dutchman

Never seen those leaf-rollers on my cannas. But when I grew Roses I had
sometimes problems with them.




Ron

Mark Hall

Is a leaf roller a small green caterpillar ? We have something similar in the uk but it attacks the brugs more than the Cannas.

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

Kerrpe

Well! I certainly won't invest in buying anymore right now then!

But I love the banana-type leaves - since we never had anything like that in our yard in Ohio the shape smacks of "tropical" for me! The two bananas and a large Bird of P were first on my cart at the nursery (which was having a 70% off sale, woohoo!). So many of the plants in our yard were 'indoors only' up north (a spider plant in the garden?!?).

That's why I had a small hope I might have found a left over banana! I'll watch this Canna for the next year and see how it fares.

Bananaman88

Kerrpe,

Hey! Welcome to the group! Where are you located in TX? You have lucked upon a great group here. I'm sure that come next spring you'll have more bananas than you can shake a stick at! We're a very generous bunch, if I do say so myself. I know I'd be happy to share some banana pups with you.

I do think that your pic is of a canna. I too have a heck of a time with the leafrollers on my cannas, but love them so much that I don't want to give them up. A good control for them if you want to try to stay organic is to use something with Bt (Bacillus thurengensis) in it. It is a biological control and can be found under the trade names of Dipel (sold in either liquid or dust form) and Thuricide. Be aware, however, that it acts on members of the Lepidoptera family (many butterflys) so if that bothers you, you may not want to use it after all. I grew up in KY where we didn't have many problems with leaf rollers so cannas were a breeze in the summer, but if you want to grow them down here you'll need to do something to combat them.

Kerrpe

Hi Bananaman! Thank you for the Welcome.
I'm west of Houston, and although I would LOVE you take you up on the pups, our yard just isn't very big. I want to wait and see how big these things actually get!

Just to give you an idea, our yard, while quite long, is only about 20' wide. We removed over 60 trees from it!!! Most seemed to be from a hedge palnting that went out of control. They were mostly about 3-4" at the base, but there was a huge maple threateneing the pool, and several very large pine trees. So we cleaned it out and started from scratch.

By all accounts the bananas grow really fast - so I don't want to fill the yard just yet! Maybe next year. I have a feeling bananas are addictive!

Kerrpe

BTW are leafrollers visible? Out in the day? the night? What should I watch for?

princessjasmine

I am having the same problem with my cannas. I have had them for 3 years now, and didn't have any problems until last month. I had thought it was the grasshoppers. I hate to kill off the butterflies because they love it here.

Bananaman88

I've never actually seen any out on the leaves chewing on them. Normally, the first I'm aware that I have an infestation of them is when I notice the new leaves staying rolled up. If you look closely, you'll see a little silk "stitching" the leaf together. I usually can break this by running my thumbnail over it a few times. You can then let the leaf unroll on it's own or you can gently unroll it and destroy the caterpillars by hand if you want. Depending on how long they've been in there they may be up to 1 1/2 inches long. They are usually greenish and smooth. If they have done much damage to the leaf and it looks bad, I just cut the leaf off just above the next good looking leaf. I've had pretty good luck keeping them at bay this year, but you really have to keep after it. If it rains, you have to spray again. I just use a little squirt bottle and it takes me about 5 minutes to spray about a dozen clumps of cannas.

You're yard is quite narrow! Well, I do have several of the dwarf bananas and others are small enough growing that you can manage them in pots. The offer is still open if you decide you want some in the spring. Just send me PM. I don't know exactly where you mean by west of Houston, but I'm in Pearland, about 20-30 min. south of Houston so if you're close enough you could always come and get them if you decide you want any. Welcome to TX!

MediaHound

I made a diagram to show where it is and what to look for. Squeeze that spot or any other where you see this bugger sleeping during the day.

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Lilith

Please, if you can, try not to spray Bacillus thurigenisis (Thuricide) for leaf rollers. It is indiscriminate, and also kills all sorts of moth and butterfly caterpillars. It is being blamed (in part) for the decrease in the FL butterfly population. That, and the nasty hurricane seasons of recent history.

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11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--

Kerrpe

We've got dogs and I'm a bit of a critter buff so we won't be spraying for anything. But I'll watch for the caterpillars!

I've also got some land planarians and of course these huge cockroaches!! But we also had a "litter" ( read: 10 million tadpoles) of toads and we are protecting those.

Bananaman, you are closer than I thought! I'm in Katy. Maybe I'll take you up on that in the spring!

Lilith

Oh yeah I know about tadpoles. I have hundreds of bromeliads in my yard and greenhouse, and the green tree frogs here use them as breeding tanks. Those little fingernail size green treefrogs are so precious when they jump on your head!

__________________
11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--