I grew banana tree in Stockport... by covering it with a dozen duvets
WHAT’S the secret of growing bananas outdoors in an all-too-brief British summer?
Around a dozen duvets, it turns out – at least if you live as far north as Stockport.
That’s the unexpected trick that has helped Kate Burke attain one of the holy grails of tropical plant growers in the garden of her cottage.
The tiny greeny-yellow bananas that are now sprouting are a testament to the dedicated 53-year-old wrapping the plants in as many as 14 duvets through winter to prevent them being damaged by frost.
Her reward was sampling her own 2in-long home-grown exotic fruit. However, she confessed it had tasted like cardboard and that there was no chance of using the crop in the mobile catering business she runs with her husband.
‘I have had a banana tree for ten years but never expected one to grow this far north,’ the mother-of-two said yesterday. ‘So I couldn’t believe it when I saw one. In all my years gardening, this is the achievement I am most
‘They’re thirsty and need masses of fertiliser’
proud of.’ Mrs Burke admits to a passion for exotic plants, with three types of palm tree in the garden of her cottage in Offerton as well as tropical flowers and cacti.
She has three 10ft banana plants, one of which is now producing fruit on three of its stems. Each one of the stems is wrapped in a couple of duvets every autumn to protect it from being killed off by frosts, and kept under cover all winter to keep it dry. Once a banana plant can be kept alive to maturity, encouraging it to flower is the next challenge, after which – in theory – the immature bunch of green fruit begins to sprout.
Mrs Burke found one banana three months ago, but in recent weeks several more bunches have appeared and she finally plucked up the courage to peel and bite into one. ‘Although they are turning yellow I tried one and I must admit it was disgusting, like eating cardboard,’ she said. ‘You can’t do much with them other than enjoy looking at them.’
She added: ‘The plants are also extremely thirsty, and they need masses of fertiliser and any type of manure I can lay my hands on, but otherwise I’ve just left them to it.’
Guy Barter, the Royal Horticultural Society’s chief horticulturalist, said: ‘It’s always a great achievement to get a banana plant to flower in the UK so Kate should be delighted.’
Daily Mail gardener Monty Don advises anyone attempting to grow one outdoors to cut the top off and dig it up before the first frosts strike, keeping it inside through the winter. Growing bananas under cover is more straightforward.