Ice Cream Banana Tree Live Plant - Musa acuminata - Wellspring Gardens Starter Plant - Easy to Grow Plants for Nature Lovers & Gardeners- Outdoor Planting in Outdoor & Patio

Plants were well-packaged, with masking-taped moist dirt, and arrived in very good condition. Box said Live Plants in big letters on outside. Trees came 8" tall with three leaves each. Trees have been growing one new leaf every week, and are now up to five leaves each. I would buy from this seller again. Note that these banana leaves seem to be naturally tiger-striped maroon over green. At first I thought they were suffering from fertilizer burn, but after they've grown large, it's clear that the purple-brown patches are on purpose. Obviously so they can hide in the jungle, and not be seen. Would like to see a YouTube on how to plant banana trees properly. Apparently they eat lots of fertilizer. We put two bags of manure cut into the ground under each. Update 1: In tropical Florida, both plants have grown from 8" to 3' tall so far in about 5 months. They are strapping ridiculously healthy. We get hot, baking sun and punishing rainstorms, and they just eat it up. Very very satisfied. I would buy from this vendor again. Update 2: Seven months later, and both plants are 7' tall now. One of them is sending out sword suckers already, its babies are only 6" tall, we're going to wait until the suckers are 2' tall then cut them out and replant them, have a forest of banana trees, woohoo. The banana is apparently a grass, like a bamboo, with a rhizome, and it just grows obscenely fast. They're distantly related to both canna lilies and ginger. The secret seems to be to bury them with enough cow manure fertilizer to kill any ordinary plant, again we cut one entire bag into the sand in a 2.5' hole underneath each shoot, then poured another entire bag into a Valley Forge fort ring about 3' diameter on top of the soil around each planting, to keep rainwater in and give it extras for grow power. Then sometimes we throw dead banana-peel wrappers at the ground in front of it, to encourage it to think about potassium. Hurricane-level watering helps as well, as does baking sun. The one with more sun is taller. These guys are my favorite pets now. Still waiting for the fruit. They really require tropical conditions, it seems. Update 3, Oct '21 We had a cold snap last December, 40 deg F, and lost the 2/3 of the leaves. But the plants kept going. A year an a half later, one is 10' high and one is 8', and they've decided to fruit. The banana bunches are about 3' long and there's about 120 bananas on each tree. But they're all going to come ripe at once. So only around 20 will be useful; maybe the rest can go to a food kitchen. So far each banana is 5" long, you have to wait patiently for them to grow. Did I mention the heavy fertilizer. The trees keep throwing off suckers. I have cut off and replanted two suckers this spring, and now they are 4' and 3' tall, also ridiculously healthy. Wait until the sucker is close to 2' tall, then carefully dig down around it and cut it off from the main tree. A carpenter's reciprocating saw works wonders, and it turns out that it will vibrate and cut through the sand underneath the root. If you don't mind trashing your blade. Of course, only cut off one sucker at a time, so the main tree has time to gather its strength and re-grow. The suckers come back, and I now have two more suckers on each main tree. Apparently it's recommended that you cut the big purple "Eat Me" heart off the end of the bloom-stalk after you get about 100 bananas, as it will keep trying to throw off mini-bananas 1" long, and absorb energy that could be used to make the first bananas fatter. Apparently the main tree is scheduled to die back down to the root after it fruits once, at the end of its second year. So leave at least one replacement sucker for each tree. These are currently 3' tall. These things eat up punishing sun that scorches most other plants. They continue to be ridonculously healthy, not eaten by beetles, aphids, nor fungus. Definitely a warm-weather plant. Very very happy. This is one of the best things I've bought from Amazon in the last 5 years. Edit 2024: We have had bad luck in Central Florida, with a cold-snap coming below freezing one day a year in January. Which kills the banana fruit that sets in the fall, before it gets big enough to eat. But this year one of the plants finally set in the spring. And now in July we have a bunch of about 80 Chiquita bananas that are full-sized, dark green, and getting ready to be ripe. Woo hoo! And each of the originals--with leaves to 10' tall--continues to throw off multiple slow runners, making a small forest that will guarantee replacements when the main shoots die off. The SawsAll is best for taking down a shoot after it dies off and turns completely brown. The 2 tiny pups that got replanted two years ago have not taken off yet, they are only 5' tall. Different location, under an oak tree--maybe they are not getting enough sun. But they are throwing off their own pups slowly as well. At some point there will be a hedge of banana trees on that side. All from two 9" purchases. Central Florida FTW. This continues to be one of the most delightful purchases I've ever made.

4-21-18 I heard about the Ice Cream Banana through a YT video and searched to see if anyone local had 1 for sale, to no avail. I looked on Ebay & Amazon, and I wasn't thrilled about the choices on Ebay. I also wasn't thrilled about the reviews on Amazon though. Some of the prices were ridiculously high at the time too. This seller, Wellspring Gardens, had some of the better reviews, but not the greatest either. I kept in mind that not everyone has a "green thumb", so I should keep an open mind. I placed the item in my 'email me when available list', as it was out of stock at the time. I waited close to a year before purchasing too, even when it came in stock, just because I was hesitant about the seller. I had a notification about the plant decreasing in price and being in stock, which is when I jumped on it. I purchased it March 28th. It's now been about 2 weeks since I received it and planted it temporarily on my windowsill in a quart sized clear cup (so I can see the moisture level). I couldn't transplant it directly outside because we were still getting snow, ice, and frost most mornings. It's also not good to directly transplant a small plant into full sun without getting it acclimated little by little (also called hardening off). I'm in 7a or 6b growing zone here, and not sure if I'll permanently transplant it outside yet because of our brutal winters. Although, there are many people who have banana plants directly planted on their lawns and gardens here and around me, but I'm not sure of their varieties. It very well could be that some are hardier than others. My plant pup came in great condition and packaged quite well. It did come with the "banana fuel" fertilizer, however, I did not use it yet when I planted it in the quart cup. Seeing as it wasn't quite growing season here yet, and this is usually the time to feed plants. I instead used an all purpose organic fertilizer, which is a very slow release. I trust it over other brands, to not 'burn' delicate roots and small plants/seedlings. I have new growth coming in as of the last 2 days, so it seems to be doing good so far. I have only given 4 stars so far, as to give the plant time to mature a little, and this allows me, I think, to give a more accurate review as I update its progress. I bought this from the seller "Wellspring Gardens" & shipped by them, which I feel is important to list this info. I've come across sellers with variances in their items, including knockoffs, even if listed as same brand. I'll post an update with a durability review. ***UPDATE*** 6-14-18 It's been a little over 2 months since I received my plant. I must say, this was a good purchase. I will have to modify the star rating to 5, instead of 4, because I was truly sent a healthy plant. If anything were to change at this point, it would be my fault or on my end (pest, weather, etc). I will admit, even though I consider myself a somewhat seasoned gardener, I did have to play with this plant's requirements.... mainly the watering. What I found is this plant really enjoys thorough waterings and not quite dry in between. We had so much rain in our part of the country, with May having most of its days with precipitation. April was not quite as bad, but surely had inches with each downpour, which is not exactly normal here. I had to add a drain hole to keep my plant from drowning. When I added the drain hole, I raised it about an inch from the bottom. I use this trick to help keep a reservoir of water for my water loving plants and this also keeps them from drowning or remaining soggy and prone to root rot. I took more photos today, as I noticed the great root growth in my clear container. I decided to transplant so it would not become rootbound, but this also became a good photo opportunity for the update. By the way, I have yet to use the Banana Fuel that was included and at this point I think I misplaced it. I just used some more of my slow release organic fertilizer, along with some Azomite dust, at this time of transplant. I know bananas generally grow fast, so hopefully this will aid in health or nutrition for its growth spurt season. So I will end in saying, I highly recommend this plant... from THIS seller. ***UPDATE*** 7-24-18 Mostly to update on the exponential growth since the last update about 4 times the size and the root is even poking out at the bottom. I'm amazed, as it's only a few days passed 1 month ago, I transplanted it. I posted 2 more photos, and it looks like I'll have to transplant yet again! Lol.

I ordered this product on July 2, 2017 and it arrived on July 8, so I've had it for a month now. The plant arrived about six inches tall and had six leaves (four large leaves and two small ones at the base) when it arrived, which was better than I expected. It looked healthy when it arrived, but three of the leaves (the two small ones and the lowest large one) browned and died within the first few day. It lost another leaf after that, but that was probably because one of my cats chewed on it. In the month since I've had it, the plant doesn't seem to have grown any taller, but it has grown two new leaves and is working on a third (it seems to be a little more prominent every time I check on it). It also seems to have produced a pup, which I'm very pleased about. Most of this growth is quite recent (within the past week or so), which I attribute to having finally figured out how to treat it to encourage growth. Why'd it take me so long even though the plant came with instructions? Because the instructions were of little value. They said that it would like full light (and the little card they came on didn't even mention that you're supposed to gently acclimate them to light again over the course of a week). Not mine. Mine likes shade and mottled light. I tried giving it full light and it drooped like it was dying (and this was Pacific Northwest light, so I'd hate to think what more intense light would do to it). After I started keeping it in shade, the second new leaf came out in about half the time it took the first, and the third started poking out before the second was finished unfurling. Basically, the plant seems to be doing very well now and I'd like to give it five stars, but I have to deduct one for the lackluster instructions that came with the plant. UPDATE: So a few more weeks have passed, and a couple more leaves have emerged. The last of it's original leaves is on its last legs, but I guess that's just what happens with bananas. Anyways, the point of this update is that it appears that my original observation that the plant doesn't like direct sunlight only applied to the original leaves. All of the new growth does fine with direct sun.

Revieved a day earlier than expected. The roots, leaves, and plant looks very healthy! I will update on how it does in a few months! (

Plant was green & healthy & nicely packaged when it arrived. Loved the little packet of food it came with. It was small, wish it had been a little bigger & stronger but since there are so many success stories in the reviews I can only conclude that under normal conditions it would have been fine. Unfortunately, it arrived in Southern California during a record heat wave that reached over 115 degrees F with record fires and poor air quality. I think it fought hard & we fought hard too spraying the leaves constantly so they wouldn’t bake in the sun and bringing it into the garage during the hot part of the day & putting it out in the mornings & late afternoons for some sunshine. But a few days ago I was really sick & it got too much sun and the tender stem got burnt. I hoped it would make it but it died tonight :( (the stem just fell over at the burnt part). I’m really sad but it survived a month in high temperatures and grew 2 new leaves before it passed. I would say they sent us a quality plant & are a great vendor to buy from! I’m very new to this area & to gardening, a more experienced gardener would probably have kept it alive.

UPDATED 12/18/24 My Ice Cream Banana tree came in prefect health. No wilting at all, no dead or yellowing leaves, very well rooted, and the soil was fresh and free of any mold. I followed the instructions and watered immediately, and will be transplanting into a bigger pot in a few days once it’s recovered from traveling. I’m so confident it’ll be big and strong in no time, and will continue to update this review. Overall very impressed with this seller. Their rewards program is awesome by the way. UPDATE: I’ve had my tree in a 5 gallon pot after it spent a few days recovering from travel, and its growth remains impressive. My sprout came with 3 leaves and very short roots. It has since grown 2 more leaves and the roots extend down to the bottom of the pot. It’s also quickly grown about 2” taller. I did prune off the decaying leaves so it actually has only 2 now, but they are bigger, greener, healthier leaves. I plan to move into the next pot size up within the next few months. I’m using standard potting soil from my local nursery mixed with some perlite, and I fertilize with 10-10-10 once a month (standard for my whole garden). Besides its growth, it’s a pretty hardy plant. My other banana trees are often victims of bugs of all sorts given I live in a very tropical area, but the ice cream banana tree seems to favor those conditions a little better than my ducasse banana trees for example. All in all, still happy with my purchase. Seller was very very kind as well.

A bit overpriced but arrived alive and growing. Banana trees tend to grow fast, hoping the same here

This plant had 2 leaves and was in a tiny pot when it arrived. It's been growing steadily and thriving. It needed to be repotted and watered. Very satisfied. Good value. Quality product. Beautiful plant