For growing outside. Preferably somewhere close to Vancouver Island, B.C. I know that the nurseries sometimes carry them and have seen them in the past but this year for some reason no one seems to have them.
They're readily available in the Vancouver area. Try asking your local nursery to make inquiries with their plant brokers.
If you're down Island near Nanaimo in the near future, I have one remaining in stock (Impoved Meyer lemon) if you're interested? Cheers, LPN. (Barrie)
Thank's Barrie, we rarely go south of Courtenay (if we can help it...just kidding!), I'll have a hunt around all the local nurseries and the ones in Campbell River and if nothing turns up maybe we'll plan a road trip south and I'll private message you then to see if you still have it.
Found! Quite by accident. We were in our local Art Knapp nursery in Courtenay taking a quick look around for anything new while picking up some amendments for planting our bananas and as I was walking along out of the corner of my eye I spotted a bunch of pots on the floor in the warm indoor section and some had green round fruit on them. Turned out there were a lot of other ornamental citrus trees but nestled in amongst them was one lone Meyer Lemon! The checkout lady said they had a *really* hard time getting them because they've ordered them repeatedly (from Monrovia apparently) but the order kept getting screwed up and no lemon trees in it. Apparently a few came in and the staff all grabbed them today and put them behind the counter for themselves and some that were ordered by people so the one I got was the only one available. Cheers guys!
That's great! Sometimes you can get what you want in the most off chance ways. I was in Courtenay yesterday and picked up a few things at Canadian Tire. Musa velutina, Nerium oleander 'Hardy Red' and some Frementodrendron for fellow gardeners. I wasn't aware Art Knapps had a store in Courtenay. Where is it in case I find myself passing by someday? The one lone Meyer lemon I had, is now living it's life on Gabriola Island. Cheers, LPN. (Barrie)
That's funny because I just got a Musa Velutina at the same Canadian tire last week. It's in the ground now and doing well. Art Knapps is about 2 minutes north on the island highway from Canadian tire.
Velutina is a very good looking ornamental red banana. It is too bad that it does not produce any edible fruit. However, because of the cold hardiness of the variety, it can be grown as far north as some areas of zone 6. - Millet
Velutina is one of the easiest and most available of ornamental bananas. The red color in the pseudostems and petioles shows off the pink flowers. The small, bright pink fruit, that are also velvety, are produced in as few as 5-6 months. These inedible bananas split open when ripe to expose the MANY small, hard black seeds. In the natural habitat, these open fruits attract birds, and small animals that eat them and spread the seed. In your area, I'm sure that the fruit will attract birds. Unfortunately, the fruit is edible. - Millet
