Banana pups

One of the most striking features in Cowick Garden is the banana trees. We had six large ones on one side of the garden and four smaller ones on the other side. Sadly, the snow and bitter cold over the last winter took its toll and two of the larger trees didn't make it.  We were glad that most of them did survive and watching them come back to life in spring and seeing the green shoots emerge out of the shabby brown stumps in the ground was very exciting! As you can tell I don't get out much.

Anyway, the two banana trees that didn't quite make it have produced pups. Yes, apparently baby banana trees are called pups and when a tree dies the long root or corm produces little shoots known as pups. These pups can, so I'm told, be easily separated from the corm and replanted. Well there are so many little banana pups in Cowick Garden and I mean so many that not only are we going to have to replant some elsewhere (if we can find the space) but we're going to have to put some in pots and give them away. I can't bear to throw any of them away and especially now that I know they're called pups?! That would just be too cruel!

I started looking up the best ways of separating the pups from the corm and came across descriptions on the Internet which referred to the main tree or plant as the 'mother' and the connection between the mother and the pup as the 'umbilical cord.' Eek! With these analogies and pictures now in my head I have no idea how I'm going to find the courage to perform this little operation and separate the pups from the mums! Wish me luck...