Musa basjoo Japanese Fiber Banana - Hardy to 20-degrees Below Zero

It may look like a fragile plant, but Musa basjoo Japanese Fiber Banana is cold hardy to 20-degrees below zero. Musa is the most popular banana tree for landscapes as cold as zone 5 in Kansas and Pennsylvania.

In our zone 7, gardeners plant them in gardens permanently close to a building or fence and mulch them in the winter. By the end of the following summer they can grow to 15-feet tall.

Matthew Weatherbee, owner of Blossoms Garden Center in Muskogee, grows them at home and sells them at the nursery.

They really do survive the winter when planted in the ground, Weatherbee said. They will freeze down but come back from the roots bigger than the year before. They also multiply and one tree becomes a clump of trees. This is a great plant!

Park Seed is offering the plants this fall. Transplant mail order plants into larger pots and keep them inside for the winter while their roots expand.

If you have one outside in the ground, the roots will live even when temperatures dip to 20-below zero, but the leaves and trunk will die back to the ground.

To care for a plant in the ground, remove the dead leaves and prune the trunk to around 2-feet tall after the first killing frost. Mulch the trunk with six to 12-inches of straw, bark or pine needles. Avoid leaf mulch since it tends to stay wet and form a mat.

Some gardeners wrap the stem with burlap and top the plant with an upside down garbage can to protect it for the winter. One gardener wrapped the trunk with Christmas lights and turned them on at night to keep the trunk warm.

Each leaf frond grows up to 18 inches wide and 6-feet long. Healthy plants will make new pups around the base. Remove the pups, plant them in pots and over-winter them indoors. Or, leave them in place and let a colony develop.

Other than Japanese beetles, few insects or diseases bother Musa basjoo but it can be killed by under or over watering.

The roots are shallow so pay attention to how dry the soil surface is. Do not allow the roots to stand in water for long periods of time. When planting Musa in the garden, amend the soil with compost to improve drainage.

To move a potted Musa basjoo indoors in the fall, top it in October before freezing weather arrives. Make a clean cut with a sharp knife at the desired height. Leave it outside until a hard frost is predicted, spray with insecticidal soap such as Safer, and bring it in.

What appears to be the trunk of a Musa basjoo is a pseudostem, in this case, a group of tightly wrapped leaves.

Banana tree leaves are designed to shred in high winds as a survival mechanism in their native tropical habitats. Keep the leaves pretty by sheltering them from hard wind.

For more information: Park Seed http://www.parkseed.com/ and 800-213-0076. Also, Parks has online gardening help at www.successwithseed.org and http://www.theplantcoach.org/.

Stop Deadheading to Save Seeds

Many gardeners have developed the great habit of walking through the garden, deadheading flowers - removing spent flowers before they go to seed.

Now that October is here, it's time to allow a few flowers to make seeds. If every flower is allowed to make seed, flowering will stop. If just a few are left on the plant, it will continue to flower.

Will you be trying to save any seeds this year? Flowers, herbs, vegetables?

Here's what I do - Collect the flower seeds when the seed head is crispy dry. In our zone 7 several flowers are ready to make seed. I've been collecting them and putting each kind in its own tea can, with the name of the flower written on a sticky note attached to the top. Tea cans are not air tight so the seeds will dry in there. They can be moved to an airtight container when they are thoroughly dried.

I'm casual about the gathering, in that all the zinnia varieties go in one can, all the marigold varieties go in one can but you may want to be more careful.

Dry milk powder folded into a paper towel, added to each can or jar of seeds will keep them dry until spring.

Want more detail? Read what Master Gardener Joyce Moore at Virtual Seeds has to say.

Papayas in Muskogee

This summer our local nursery, Blossoms, got a shipment of tropical plants from Florida. We picked up a papaya, thinking it would make a fun addition to a hot spot. Not only is it 8-feet tall, it is making fruit.

There are at least a dozen papayas. Will they ripen before the first hard frost? Who knows. In the meantime, it is entertainment for the garden staff (me and hubby).
Can you see it? Between the two plants is the veggie garden's resident toad. S/he bounces around from leaf cover to basil cover when I'm weeding out there.
Eat those buggies, little toad friend.

October's Flowers and Vegetables

This flower bed is bursting with fall color

In another spot, marigolds peek through Weigela.


Our little vegetable garden continues to work hard.

Every day it produces something that winds up on the table.


Now the former cucumber trellises are covered with gourd vines.


The tomatoes and eggplant became tonight's stir fry. Lettuce seedlings went into the open spots yesterday, in time to take advantage of the October rain.



A package of seeds arrived today. I'm going to try to grow lettuce in cold frames.
Have you had any success with that kind of project? What works? Any advice?

Peachy Flowers and Fall Bugs

Peach is a just right color for fall. It blends in so well with the bright gold marigolds, shiny yellow bells, red salvias and umber sedum blooms.
Photo: Apricot Blush Zinnia

Photo: Dahlia from Old House Gardens


Can you tell I rely on zinnias to fill the late summer beds and keep them looking exciting until frost?

Photo: And then there are the fall bugs to deal with. The search is on. They aren't red milkweed beetles.

Ah, they are milkweed leaf beetles. Thanks to the Texas Entomology site Texas Ento dot net we now know that their formal name is Labidomera clivicollis.

The Bug Guide calls them Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetles.

Iowa State's site says that there are actually 457 separate insects that eat milkweed. The author notes that the bugs aren't a problem unless one is trying to raise milkweed as a crop.

Well, but I'm raising milkweed to make Monarch waystations

.... so, do I drop those bugs into soapy water or let them eat, lay eggs in the soil and come back in bigger numbers next year?

Not exactly a moral dilemma but what would you do? Let them eat and make babies or drop them in the bucket?

October's Changing of the Guard in the Garden - Planting Seeds

Time to plant fall greenery.
We have just the right weather for putting in a few vegetables to boost the healthy components of winter's dinner table.

Chard, kale, lettuce, broccoli raab, mustard, Pak Choi and spinach can be planted in a sunny spot now and still have time to produce baby greens for salads or stir fry.

Chard, raab and kale can be used to make fresh rolls filled with cooked, seasoned rice.

Raab, rapini or broccoli di rapa, is easy to grow. The new leaves flavor salads and sandwiches, the larger leaves and pseudo broccoli heads can be steamed.

Kale has a dozen varieties. 'Lacinato' is cold tolerant and light frost sweetens its leaves.

Pak Choi is added Asian soup, steamed with garlic and olive oil or chopped into salad.

Spinach lovers don't have to be told about its many uses from vegetarian lasagna to wraps.




Prepare and amend a sunny bed. Use leftover veggie seeds from your spring garden or buy a few packs of the ones you know your family will eat.

I just ordered 5-new kinds of lettuce from Baker Creek. They are our geographically closest seed catalog company. My selection was based on the Cornell growers recommendation site.

Oklahoma State University recommends many varieties for Oklahoma gardens -
Black Seeded Simpson , Grand Rapids T.B.R. , Prizehead (red) , Red Sails
Salad Bowl , Waldmann’s Green, Butterhead , Bibb , Buttercrunch , Juliet , Merveille Des Quatre Saisons, Romaine , Little Gem , Romance, Batavian – (combo. of romaine & head)
Cardinale , Little Loma , Nevada , Assorted Greens
Mizuna , Pak Choi , Red Mustard , Red Kale
Arugula , Mache , Mesclun - misc. salad mix , Mizuna , Radicchio , Upland Cress
Mustard - Florida Broad Leaf, Southern Giant Curled, Tendergreen
Kale - Red - Red Russian, Green - Verdura, Blue - Vates

If you miss this planting season the next one is Feb 15 for early spring vegetable seed planting.

Caring for Queen Mums

Chrysanthemums are the queens of the fall flowers whether they are in pots, baskets, or cut flower arrangements. Because they are so easy to grow and breed, chrysanthemum varieties have multiplied.

Faribault Growers (faribaultgrowersinc.com) divides their mail order plants into 3-categories: Garden Decorative, Football and Novelties. Novelties are spiders, cushion, and Matchstick. Footballs have 4 to 7-inch blooms. Garden Decorative mums are the ones we find in local stores as plants.

Diana Hartman, president of the Oklahoma City Chrysanthemum Society said, “The plants you can get at home improvement stores are freeze hardy in Oklahoma.”

Lanna King of King’s Mums said, “Heat and rain are not a problem for chrysanthemums as long as you plant them in well-drained beds.”

Tips for your potted mums – Put drainage holes in any pot wrapping paper. Give them a sunny location and moderate water.

When the flowers fade, cut off the dead pieces, put the plant in a bright spot like the garage, and water them occasionally. After the last frost of the winter (around April 15), water and fertilize, then put the plant in a partly shaded place outside to acclimate it. In a week, plant it into the garden with a little slow release fertilizer.

Plant them the same depth they were in the pot, in any good garden soil, where they will get at least 6-hours of sun. Add compost, leaf mold or peat moss to the soil removed from the planting hole before putting it back in around the plant’s roots.

Cutting back and pinching the stems is done in June, July and August.

Hartman grows for chrysanthemum shows, so her plants are staked, one stem to a stick. Every leaf and bud is removed except the top one.

Growers apply Superphosphate, 3-pounds per 100-square feet and Gypsum or Dolomite lime 10-pounds per 100-square feet. Home gardeners use 15-30-15 such as Rapid Grow or Peter’s Potted Mum from August 1 to bloom.

To make more of your favorite mums, take 6-inch cuttings, remove lower leaves, and plant in a protected place.

Chrysanthemums were recorded in China by 15 B.C. and in Japan by the 8th Century A.D. Their roots were boiled as a remedy for headaches, the petals were eaten in salads, and the leaves were brewed as a tea.

Mums belong to the Asteracea Compositae, or daisy, plant family. Their close relatives include dahlias, sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, Shasta daisy, Feverfew and cosmos.

Annual Chrysanthemum varieties such as German Flag, Court Jester, Dunnettii, Shasta, Painted and Crazy daisy, can be grown from soaked seed as long as you can provide a constant 75-degree environment by using a thermostatic heat mat. Do not cover seeds whether you start them in the greenhouse in Feb-March or in the garden in mid-April.

Swallowtail Garden Seeds (http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/) has Rainbow Mix Tricolor, Chrysanthemum carinatum, seeds. The flowers of this annual are daisy-like multi-colored purple, orange, rose, yellow and white daisy-like. $2.95 for a packet with over 2,500 seeds. 2-feet tall, easy to grow.

Thompson and Morgan (http://www.tmseeds.com/) has 8-seed-varieties, and plants including pom pom, Northern lights and coconut ice.

Membership in the National Chrysanthemum Society http://www.mums.org/ is $20 a year. For Oklahoma City chapter information such as meetings and shows, contact Diana Hartman at 405-495-0129 or Oklahoma@mums.org.