[chutneymaster]

Has anyone experienced strange events in their gardens due to temperature change ?

[John]

You mean like July?

Difficult to pin down what's in the normal range and what's due to global warming -

I heard on the radio that blackcurrant growers are looking at different  varieties because they need a cold winter to flower and fruit.

[chutneymaster]

You mean like July?

Difficult to pin down what's in the normal range and what's due to global warming -

I heard on the radio that blackcurrant growers are looking at different  varieties because they need a cold winter to flower and fruit.

Strange events in my garden (south east Kent) plants forming buds that should be dying back, i.e. Clematis Montana, Delphiniums, Foxgloves, Poppy's etc etc.

[Eristic]

We have to consider new and exciting crops like bananas.

[milkman]

Fab looking plant - have you harvested bananas this year ertistic?

[Heather_S]

I've grown bananas from seed this summer. They're about a foot high. It's not that unusual to have them here... they have them in sheltered bits of Cornwall where they don't get frost or high winds and my inlaws just move them into the conservatory in the winter. They do die down a bit in winter, I hear.

Is that one of the red velvet banana plants?

[Eristic]

My plants are wat too small to fruit this year but they have grown well given that it was mid-summer before they were planted out from their small pots.

I have three varieties growing: Musa basjoo, which is extremely hardy but does not produce edible fruit, Musa Dwarf Cavendish which produces child sized fruits of the shop sort but is tender and has to be overwintered indoors. The photo is of Musa sikkimensis which grows high up the himilayas and produces nice fruit but with seeds in.

The good thing about banana plants is that they can be dug up and stored in a dormant state for the winter. This is gardening on the edge, but in succesive years we will have to adapt to growing different crops as some traditional crop begin to fail due to the heat and drought, while other plants currently only grown under glass become viable in the open allotment.