Critter's Gone Bananas

Thanks Critter for the great article. I very much enjoyed it and can't wait to start growing my own Bananas.

LOL

Is that your daughter's banana plant? If so, I'm turning quite green... She has fruit!!!

So, are we placing a little co-op order for dwarf bananas in time for the tea party?

Yep, That's her Banana. I have been watching her plant grow for a couple of years now. You can see why I developed an interest in getting one for myself. If you are going to order some I would like too also. I'd be interested in Dwarfs or Hardy. What did you have in mind?

Dwarfs. I haven't yet given up on the dream of edible fruit...

Ok, I'm ready to order. Where do I look and what do I want?

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfrppZ50QQfrtsZ0QQsassZwellspring100

These are the folks I ordered from before. We should probably check their current Watchdog rating, but I got good help there when I was clueless.

I think that Dwarf Red banana looks pretty cool. And I'm not sure I can resist that little Allspice tree-ling...

Yes, The Red Dwarf is what I had in mind. They have a BASJOO BANANA PLANT I think that is the hardy one I want. Did you see the POMEGRANATE DWARF FRUIT TREE, I don't think I want one but there was one at the Conservatory that had a pomegranate on it when we were down for the Christmas Display. Do you think they can ship to your house in this weather before the swap?

Ohhh I want one. They are CUTE!! Are they hard to kill?

I haven't managed to kill my non-dwarf bananas yet... they've been outside for the past 2 summers now, and this is their second winter in the basement. I've got Ice Cream Bananas and Apple Bananas and an unknown that is clearly not the Dwarf Orinocco I ordered. I can't swear that I can tell them apart, because I didn't do a great job tagging them this fall, just wrote on them with a sharpie marker when I dug them up... but if you want one of them, there's likely to be a spare pup.

I'm not looking at the dwarf pomegranate. My Key Lime is clinging to life, but I let the Meyer Lemon go... both were just overwhelmed with scale this past year, never really recovered over the summer like they usually do. The allspice tree description says "culture similar to sweet bay" -- and I know I can grow a sweet bay, since I have a nice potted one!

They don't say anything about shipping in cold weather. I do know they had plants on backorder before and ended up shipping to me in early December... I was worried, but they arrived in good shape. I should email them (or you should) and see what he thinks about shipping. Is there any reason you think it's better to ship to me than to you?

I have to bring a rain barrel to you! HAHAHA I do not know if I can do a rain barrel and a banana tree. It does not matter, I can take the car seats out and place the barrel in the backseat.

i will shoot him an email tomorrow..

Jenn, they are very small plants at this stage. Also, since I thought Holly was interested in getting several plants, I figured maybe we'd let her take delivery and organize this mini co-op of ours... ?

works for me....

We'll see if it works for Holly... LOL

Actually, we may end up calling on you, Jenn, since you're generally home during the day, right? I usually am, too, but next month my schedule may be a little unpredictable. We'll see what Holly wants to do. All I know is that I have a hard time passing up a shipping deal, LOL, so I think we must order at least 4 plants between us!

Somehow, I don't think that'll be a problem. Remember, banana plants do make pups, so if we order different things with a little luck we'll be able to swap them around... But if there's something you absolutely must have, don't count on me for a baby next year, because that'll just jinx my plant!

My hubby is usually home.. I am in DC..

That's right! I knew somebody was around your house during the day... it came up before in some context...

I'm home most of the time I only worked a little pt for the holiday season then it was back to the retired life. I'll contact them and see when they can ship. Silly me was thinking your south of me so maybe they would ship to you before me. Like there is a big difference between Md and Pa. LOL

Jenn, if you're not planning to keep the banana dormant over the winter, you should know that the "dwarf" ones still get to be about 6 feet tall... and they need the sunniest window you can give them. I don't know if your windows are already crammed with plants in the winter the way a lot of mine are... I'm not actually sure where this little banana will go... quite possibly in the dining room, so there's a "pretty" one that the more straggly looking pups can hide behind!

Ok, I sent out an E-mail, asking how many plants we need to order to get the free shipping and if they can get the plants to me before Feb 23rd. If they say yes we could see if anyone else wants anything from them, too. I won't have any trouble bringing them along with me.
Jen it will be nice getting to meet you in person. Holly

This message was edited Feb 1, 2008 8:51 AM

Holly, the eBay description doesn't say "free shipping" exactly... it's that shipping for the first plant is $6, I think, and then the next 3 plants ship free in the same box (for starter size plants). Additional plants ship for 50 cents each. So, if we order 4 plants and split the shipping, it'll come to $1.50 per plant. If we order more plants, the shipping cost per plant goes down as an average.

Thanks Critter, I found the shipping table. I was just looking at the plants they have and saw the little save on shipping note but never went into a specific plant so I missed that whole shipping table.

Sorry... I should've made that clear!

No not your fault I just don't buy much on E-bay and missed it. Let me make sure I have this right. I can just order from Wellsprings site on the buy now. Think I got this down and I am a e-bay member and have a paypal acct so ordering won't be a problem.
They sent back an answer to my question. The shipping is $6.99 for 1-4 items and 50 cents for each additional item.(Just as you said) Just note on your payment when they are needed by. As long as the weather cooperates we should be good to go. Guess that means that we "may" have them in time. The few things that I have ordered via co-ops always hold my tropicals(Canna & Caladium) until the end of April to ship due to temp. I definitely want the 2 bananas and there are a couple of other plants I could take as well.
Critter, what do you think, should we go for it? Have you had things delivered in colder weather. We could put out a quick shout to the Swap Thread and see if anyone else is interested in a few plants.
Jenn, How about you did you want to order anything, too.



This message was edited Feb 1, 2008 1:59 PM

Did they say anything about who takes the risk for shipping plants in this weather?

I'd rather wait until spring if the risk is ours. If they guarantee healthy plants on arrival, then sure, let's go ahead. We can either do "buy now" or try the Dutch auction and maybe save a little... but it's not likely to be more than maybe a dollar off on each plant, so I'm happy to do "buy now" and not worry about it.

I just sent back another e-mail asking if they normally ship tropicals in these temps and made sure they knew that we are having 30 to 40 degree weather. I checked them out on the gardenwatch dog everything looked good. Interesting though the link to their website (not the e-bay one) has different prices and shipping fees.

Oooh. Just happened to check in. Sitting here in Quito, finally adjusting (I think) to the 9300 ft altitude. About to go for a walk and see what happens. I'm interested in ordering a banana plant depending on the weather issues. Also fine with waiting until it warms up a bit if that is better. Please put me on the list.

Jill, I missed your article yesterday so I'll go back and look it up. Couldn't pick up wireless, even during the extra 2 hours we ended up sitting in Miami airport waiting for the flight to come in from Quito so it could turn around and go back again. . . .

Woohoooo! Heya, Sherry! Good to hear from you!!

Be sure to tell us what kind of banana plant you want... Dwarf Red, Dwarf Orinocco, Dwarf Cavindish? Truly Tiny Banana? (less than a foot tall -- really cute! they sent me one as a bonus with my first order, but I managed to kill it.)

If you want a regular size plant, I hope you'll let me gift you with a pup of one of mine... :-)

I'll jump on the Banana thingy! I am still trying to figure out what Banana I can manage to keep alive! I only have one that is still alive and I grew that one from seed :-)

Here's the reply about the shipping temps.
As long as the lows are upper 20's and the highs a good deal above freezing we are good to ship. (4-5 days in a row.)
Ok girls, looks like we might be good to go. Right now our 5 day forecast is showing a rising temp Sun is low 34 high 47 and Mon is low 38 high 51 and I think it's to stay that way most of next week. Figure out what you want and I'll put in an order now if everyone agrees. I'll bring your plants to Critters on the 23rd. If I don't get them for some reason then we will just have to have another get together. LOL

So we are going with the ebay vendor? and I can order "other" stuff too?

We might want to stick with the "starter size" plants to minimize shipping costs and keep things simpler for Holly.

I ordered "Banana Fuel," and I seem to remember they didn't charge much extra to just ship it along with the rest. If you could see about adding a 1 pound bag to our order, I'd appreciate it (or we could order a 3 pound bag and split it up)... I give them Miracle grow with everything else when they're outside, but the indoor pups get Banana Fuel on occasion and seem to appreciate it.

I'd like a Dwarf Red and an Allspice, please.

One Red Dwarf Please... Holly do you want me to paypal you money or mail you some?

Jenn

One red dwarf and one truly tiny - IF they have a high color mini I would like one of them as well :-) I can paypal $ immediately - just lemme know :-)

Now comes the hard part - keeping them alive - Critter WHAT am I doing wrong? Overwatering?

What kind of pot do I need to buy for it? I do not have any pots at all.. ugh

Just an FYI. I checked the Watchdog, and there's only been one rating added the last 12 months. It looks like the reviewer had the same issue I had with 2 of their plants -- when I took them out of their 2 inch pots, I discovered the root systems were essentially still those of "plugs" and not of established little potted plants. Since the plants themselves were healthy little 6-8 inch specimens as advertised and did just fine for me, I didn't complain in my Watchdog review (although I think I mentioned it in my eBay rating).

I'm still feeling confident about ordering from them, but wanted to be sure people were aware of this possibility. I guess I'd advise that nobody go overboard and order $$ amounts of plants, just in case a quality issue has developed... If we love the plants, we can always place another order in spring, or at the end of summer.

(I can hear you now -- what, Jill?? advising caution? restraint? is that really Critter talking?? LOL, yes it is. I've been called the "voice of reason" on other co-ops, believe it or not.)

LOL - now that IS funny :-)

Jenn, for the next couple of months it'll be fine in a small pot -- maybe one of those 4 inch pots to start with, then move it up to a trade gallon pot. Eventually, it's going to need a big pot, at least 5 gallons. We're talking about a pot that's 18 to 20 inches in diameter. With a dwarf variety, you might be able to get away with a 16 inch pot -- that might be something to ask about.

If you're going to move it in & out & all about in its pot, look for an attractive plastic (resin) or foam pot. You'll see some of the ones I have to get some ideas. I found some nice ones at Ollie's last spring that I think were under $20... big pots tend to be big bucks. Maybe we need to try again to get together for a hypertufa party and make some big pots that are the right size for holding 5 gallon nursery pots... if you didn't have to move pot and plant together, that would simplify things!

Hey, Holly... in their reply about shipping temps... I guess that forecast is what they require before they will ship, but did they say what their policy is if plants don't arrive in good shape? I think we'll be fine, but I'm just curious.

Critter, I'll ask if they guarantee the plants through shipping and I'll check on additional shipping for the Banana Fuel.
Yes, you can order more plants, I was thinking 2- 3 plants per person of the starter size. Although if you really want a couple more add them in and I'll see how large the list grows.
I'll bring the plants to Critters and you can pay me there.You don't need to worry about sending any checks right now.

Becky, not sure why yours don't do well... we'll compare notes. :-) It's for certain that mine don't get overwatered, LOL. Poor pups did get big drinks yesterday, though. It can be easy to overwater the pups at first until they get established in their pots -- if the "trunks" get soft on you, that might be what's happening. Remember that I'm really a novice at this.

I posted a link on the Swap thread just in case there was anyone else that was interested. I think I'll put the order in tonight, I don't want to wait too long and that should give everyone a little time to see the post and jump in if they want.