Musa, Canna, Costus, Heliconia, Maranta, Strelitzia,Ginger.....show your faves! This is one of mine....Heliconia zebrina 'Inca'. I have 3 one gallon containers, growing them up to a good size, then will merge them and plant them all into the ground in one place. They are rare and I was lucky to get them.

Amazing foliage on that one!

I have so many favorites but don't own them all Lol!!

Globba gingers and really any gingers are definitely a fav.
Here's some of my globbas
Blue Hawaii




Another Blue Hawaii with matching climbing rose Poseidon in background lol



Globba Sangria




Globba White Dragon



Globba winitii

Beautiful! I am looking to get some new bananas (Musa) this spring. I am making space now!

Gina try the Thai Black banana. Really has a pretty trunk.

I'll look it up! I have some new costus to plant, and have some new varieties heliconia rhizomes going. Won't have blooms on them for a year or so but always worth it!

One of my favorites. Hedychium Dr. Moi.




I was going to post some pictures of my Thai Black bananas but I can't find them now. I will look some more later. They are pretty winter hardy. Last year they survived 24 degree temperatures with snow and ice. Very unusual here.
I have several more gingers planted and maybe 8 more in the greenhouse that will be planted this year. I also have ordered some more from Gingerwood Nursery that will be here in the spring. The ones in the ground are all ragged looking right now. I will take more pictures in the spring.

Going Bananas in South FL has some Thai black but they are pricey and I would have to drive down and pick them up. I'll have to look around. Maybe Jene's have some. We have a big Spring Garden festival coming up here in March so I am going to see what may be available there.
So I see you live in GA. Have you ever had experience with the nursery at Tyty? They have been online for many years but don't seem to have a stellar reputation.

All of my various hedychiums are still up in the yard. We haven't had cold of the variety to freeze them back so I may end up having to prune all the bloomed stalks off this year. All my costus are still up too, and most of the peacock gingers except 'Raven'. The ones that usually go dormant are dormant, the ones that usually get buzzed by cold are still up and some want to blow. Lots of seeds on the spent stalks too.

@sultry_jasmine_night,
what I wouldn't give to have those globbas in my garden! Hoping the one I bought last spring will come back this spring. Don't see many for sale here.

The hardiest globe for me has ALWAYS been Purple Globe. It returns every year, the Dancing Ladies come back sometimes and sometimes not. I am ready to relegate them to permanent greenhouse residents

I got my Thai Black bananas from one of the mail order nurseries in Florida. I can't remember the name right now but it might have been Florida Hill. It was one of the nurseries that sells small plants just out of starter trays but I bought several things from them in the past and don't think I ever lost one early on. If I did it was my fault. I do remember I bought a lot of elephant ears from them too.
I have stayed totally away from Tyty do to their bad reviews. I thought about driving there once but decided it was not worth the time and effort.

I have looked at Florida Hill's website before. If I wasn't so darn lazy I would just go down to central/south FL. My daughter lives in Sarasota! But she's in school and has a one bedroom apt, nowhere to put mama up for the night. Her old roommate moved out and took the couch, my daughter and her new roommate don't want a new couch. Probably because they know mama will come sleep over on plant trips. We used to go down every year for the Marie Selby sales in Sarasota and the Fairchild Garden Ramble in Miami. But its been years. I plan to go to the University of South FL botanical gardens sale this year(another I used to go to a lot). I am sure I can pick up some cool manners this season.

It is my understanding that if you pick something up in person at TyTy you are OK but online ordering is said to be a guaranteed disaster.

Good to know, they seem to have such a huge catalog. Another gardening friend and I used to get a huge kick out of looking at their online site....the beefy young dudes looking like they were farming around the commune, the girls in tight spaghetti strap tops holding up plants....we used to laugh and say we were not sure exactly what they were really trying to sell...

Gina Brian's Botanicals has Thai Black bananas for $12.99. I think this is where I got mine now that I think about. They also have the Siam Red which I love. Killed mine last year with too much water. May try it again this year. It is picky but not as much as the AeAe. I had one for 15 years and it finally gave up the ghost. It even produced variegated bananas one year. I have tried to buy another one but they are too expensive or too iffy.

Michael, at my last home, on St. Helena Island outside of Beaufort, I had a Sum x Cross that I picked up from Greg Fonseh who was researching bananas at the Bamboo Farm years ago. Have you tried that one? It was very hardy for me, always emerging very late in the spring. Originally I thought I had lost it but it always came back and survived many winters with no noticable issues and mine had very wide leaves with gorgeous red markings. It was also a fairly small musa, topping out at about 8' probably because it died to the ground each year. Here is a photo of it when it was young. The red became more pronounced as it matured.

emddvm said:Gina Brian's Botanicals has Thai Black bananas for $12.99. I think this is where I got mine now that I think about. They also have the Siam Red which I love. Killed mine last year with too much water. May try it again this year. It is picky but not as much as the AeAe. I had one for 15 years and it finally gave up the ghost. It even produced variegated bananas one year. I have tried to buy another one but they are too expensive or too iffy.

I have bought plants from Brian in years past before I had to take my leave of absence from plants for a bit. He was very active on another forum that I was on, along with some other great folks who seem to have dropped off the internet garden forum game. Their loss is sorely missed (by me anyway). I got my Siam Red from him years ago.
I had an Ae Ae in the past...it was so beautiful; It grew almost 20 ft tall, and had a pup. I took the pup off and grew it up. The mother produced a hand of bananas, then produced another pup. That pup was all white and did not survive.
The first pup I removed grew well and produced a pup, that pip too was all white and did not survive, they the mother plant succumbed to rot for an unknown reason and I had NO Ae Ae. I would not recommend people spending the big bucks on Ae Ae. Its beautiful, rare, eye-catching and neat, but in the end, it has some genetic flaws that can be lethal.

ardesia said:Michael, at my last home, on St. Helena Island outside of Beaufort, I had a Sum x Cross that I picked up from Greg Fonseh who was researching bananas at the Bamboo Farm years ago. Have you tried that one? It was very hardy for me, always emerging very late in the spring. Originally I thought I had lost it but it always came back and survived many winters with no noticable issues and mine had very wide leaves with gorgeous red markings. It was also a fairly small musa, topping out at about 8' probably because it died to the ground each year. Here is a photo of it when it was young. The red became more pronounced as it matured.

Alice I have not tried that one. I do have a couple of red variegated bananas but they were given to me and I have not been impressed with them. Just not very pretty and seem to struggle every year. Guess I should replace them too.
When you said Bamboo Garden did you mean the one in Savannah or another one?

Gina my AeAe also produced a couple of pups a few days years ago and then they all died just like yours did. I really think I overwatered them. I do agree that they are a genetic mess and just not very hardy which is a shame. I also think I overwatered my Siam Red. I was using a small sprinkler on a timer and just did not pay close enough attention.
There are a couple of other white variegated varieties out there too. One is called Florida and I cannot remember the other right now. I tried to purchase the Florida last year from a person in Puerto Rico but never could get the deal to work. He also has AeAe. I may try again. There are some dealers in Thailand that advertise them too but I have been reluctant to try do to the long shipping time. It works fine for plumeria but plants that are more perishable I hate to try.

The Savannah one, it was still the Bamboo farm when I got the Sum x, now it is the Coastal Botanical Garden or something like that. They kept a few stands of their more unusual bamboos but got rid of most. For a while they were a cold hardy citrus research facility and the citrus too is gone as are most of Greg Fonseh's bananas.

Michael I would not buy a perishable from Thailand. Years ago I was in a group purchase with 3 other nursery people, we went in 3 ways on a shipment of rhizomes from Thailand. All sorts of heliconias, gingers, new and unusual stuff. The shipment was delayed entry for several days into the Port of Miami and a lot of the stuff just cooked. It was unusable when we got it. And, you have to have a the paperwork done for having an import permit. If you have gotten plumeria from out of country, you must have that. Otherwise I think its a fine if you get caught without