PlantFiles: Chinese Yellow Banana, Golden Lotus Banana
Musella lasiocarpa

Comes back in my zone 6b/7a completely unprotected on a south-facing hillside, but main plants are often dead and rotted enough that the pups take over for the next growing season. Haven't seen a bloom on my 3 year old planting, but beautiful and interesting without blooms anyway. Moving against a south-facing retaining wall and protecting this coming winter (2013), hoping for blooms next year.

My musella sits among true banana trees, all set out in 2011, on the south side of my home in Sandy Springs, GA. I have posted pictures showing the new growth coming out in March, its fullness in April, and its first flower. I did not notice when the flower began to appear, but it was fully formed before the end of June.

I bought two of these this spring, trying them, for the first time and have them in 30cm (12 inch?) pots in the greenhouse. I thought they were entirely tropical so would need cosseting here in Scotland, but reading the various comments I now have decided to take them outdoors, at least for the summer.

I'm now thinking the pots are much too small - what do you think would be the ideal size for potting on right now? The plants are only about 30cm high, but very healthy.

I can't believe it! I failed to protect my musella (except for being planted near a south-facing wall). After a bizar winter where temperatures soared and plunged between the 70's into the teens seveal times, settled into single digit lows for nearly two weeks then to be follwed with a March in the High 80's and 3 hard record breaking freezes in April.... My Musella is still there and growing. Obviously much hardier than some would expect. This is in heavy clay as well which is usually the death of marginally hardy plants.

According to my information, this plant is hardy to atleast zone 6 if well mulched.

I have had two of the which were initially individual stalks, they now fill 2 30 inch pots with about 15-20 healthy growths. Mine have never bloomed and I grow them in full sun near the pool. They look great. I saw some blooming at the Biltmore which is about 50 miles north of atlanta at least. But I did not recall whether they were in pots of in the ground. I am thinking about experimenting by ,leaving one out this winter-if it dies I can always break up the other one.

The image of this plant's blossom is often used in Buddhist temple ornamentation. For that reason, and my own spiritual predilections and the plant's exotic, innate beauty, it was a "must have" plant for me upon first viewing a photo of it. I found two sellers offering the plants on eBay and I bought one plant from each for about $5. One of the plants arrived frozen prior to shipment (bad buying experience!) with the leaves totally black from freeze damage, but it has recovered and is now leafing out nicely. The other plant was in good health when received and is growing quickly in full sun in my garden. I look forward to seeing them bloom when they mature.

I have grown this plant in my garden for 4 years; it has bloomed once. The bloom was exquisite and lasted ALL summer. I mulch it in with about a foot of straw before the first hard freeze of the winter. The foliage seems to take a few degrees below 0 with minimal edge burn. Any exposed foliage turns to mush at the first hard freeze. After it's first winter in my garden, I thought it had developed rot; so I dug it up and threw it in the trash; a few days later, I noticed it was actually starting to grow and re-planted it. Seems to be a VERY tough plant. Have yet to figure out how to successfully divide the extremely large clump it has become.

This is another incredibly cold hardy banana species... brand new to the nursery scene only 5-6 years ago but now you can get one anywhere... it is a great dwarf species with a unique thistle-like yellow flower that can last for many months before dying (then the plant dies... but usually has many suckers by then). Great specimen plant for smaller gardens.