British Columbia: Fruiting Banana Plants

Fruiting trees made the news last year, which made me think they are rare occurrences in our area.

• 'By Golly, That's A Banana': Plant Finally Bears Fruit In B.C.
  
• DIG DEEP: North Vancouver man grows bananas

Apparently the man in the second articles have had fruit for a number of years. So far I've come across two such plants this year. Just how rare is it for banana plants to produce fruit in our area? Is it more common than we've been led to believe? Have you seen any where you are?

 

I've noticed two with fruits this year in Vancouver, one in Kitsilano and one in Hastings-Sunrise against a west-facing wall. I've seen a few in other years, I think in Kitsilano, a warm neighbourhood, on south-facing walls.

 

There is also a gentleman in Delta with fruit on his bananas.

However the bananas in question are musa basjoo - Japanese fibre bananas - and they are not very palatable. They are also monocarpic, meaning they die after producing fruit, but as they are rather prolific at producing pups (offshoots), all is not lost.

 

Update: Owner of banana plant #1 told me this is the first time the plant has produced fruit in 15 years.

 

There's a hardy banana fruiting at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.
The plant with pink flowers is also of note, but I don't know the name. I recognize because it's commonly planted in southern California.

 

The flowering plant looks like Nerium oleander.