I was at Lowe’s today, and came across a plant that I had been curious about for a long time. How can you not be curious about a supposedly hardy banana? Bananas are supposed to be tropical plants, surviving but not always happy in the subtropical areas. How could a banana grow in areas that have snow? The Japanese fiber banana (Musa basjoo) is supposed to do just that. It comes from an area of Japan where it snows. And it more than survives. It is said to be the hardiest banana known. I wondered if it would survive in my garden. I could already hear the cries from my design friends who would decry such a planting. I could hear echos of “sense of place” and that a banana would be completely inappropriate for Albuquerque. A friend of mine tells me (frequently) that he doesn’t feel that palms (like the one in my Mediterranean-style courtyard) or even Yucca faxoniana (from the southern part of the state, rather than this area) are appropriate for this area. I could observe my mind thinking that Albuquerque is a desert, and not a tropical one at that, and nothing could be more wrong than to plant a banana in my yard. Still, I stood there looking at it.
In school, we are always taught to “think outside the box” and to “push things farther”. It’s fun to think along those lines also. How far outside the box can I go? How much is too far? IS there a “too far”? Is the avoidance of the typical east coast planting scheme that is seen around town considered thinking outside the box? Is xeriscape, or natives-only, or precipitation-only design thinking outside the box? Or are these now considered to be “inside the box” since it is becoming more commonplace? How long do we keep pushing and when is enough enough? Right now, in landscape architecture, I’ve been looking at the work of Darmuid Gavin, whose landscapes are “outside the box” in my mind. To me, they are to landscape what Zaha Hadid’s work has been to architecture. Not that they are both from the same school of thought, but that they push the boundaries. I can appreciate Gavin’s work, but I certainly wouldn’t want to live it. I suppose it is art, but that doesn’t mean that I want to live that form of art. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone else that opportunity.
Now I’m in the garden section of Lowe’s, looking for some ornamental grasses, when I come across this banana. I don’t deny that a banana is visually inapt for Albuquerque. But I’m also a curious kind of guy, and I want to know how such a banana would do in an appropriate spot in my yard. Is there such a thing as an appropriate spot for this thirsty plant? Yes, my mind immediately comes up with a location. It is on the east side of the house, partially shaded by being between houses, where the canales drain into a sort of bioswale, and the neighbor’s swamp cooler empties into every night during warm weather. The Cotinus coggyria planted there is dying since the roots are rotting. The things that are growing best there are incongruities to the xeric plants of the rest of the garden: Siberian irises (a streamside plant) and Hymenocallis (subtropical/tropical swamp bulb). This would be the place to try it. Bananas being hungry plants as well as thirsty, may not appreciate the soils here, but also, being hungry plants, it would be interesting if they would be effective in dealing with grey water.
So I’m weighing these issues while I’m in the aisle at Lowe’s, three sacks of compost in the cart, and a solar light. Is it ecologically irresponsible to plant a banana in my yard? Will it even survive either the winter or summer here? Will such a plant in my secluded side-yard be so incongruous as to be a constant jarring irritation? I realize that I don’t have the answers to all these questions. But I’m overwhelmingly curious. The plant makes its way into my cart. It’s an experiment, I tell myself. At $13 dollars, a cheap experiment compared to the experiment of Studio. It’s process.
Image from the Plant Delights website: www.plantdelights.com
Update: Came to my senses (i.e. chickened out) and returned the Musa basjoo 9/17/07
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