LSU AgCenter's Weekly Message

Giant Plume Ginger and Pink Velvet Banana Offer Tropical Foliage and Pink Color

Two staples of my perennials border have a lot in common. Giant plume ginger (Curcuma elata) and pink velvet banana (Musa velutina) both grow to about 6 to 7 feet tall once they’re well-established. They have a tropical appearance and die back to the ground in the winter but, being cold hardy throughout Louisiana, return in the spring. When the plants lack flowers or fruit, it’s easy to confuse them.

What makes these two plants so appealing to me, besides how easy they are to grow, is the pink color they provide in the garden. Giant plume ginger sends up flower stalks with striking pink bracts in the spring. (The flowers themselves, less noticeable, are yellow.) They begin flowering in late April, before the plant’s leaves emerge. The pink velvet banana plant, returning after the winter, begins flowering in late spring. Many banana species have pink bracts, but as the name suggests, this plant also produces small, pink-peeled bananas.

Neither giant plume ginger nor pink velvet banana seem to be widely available in nurseries. However, both are easily propagated by division of their rhizomatous root systems or, in the case of the pink velvet banana, by seed.

Bananas need a good deal of sun exposure for maximum foliage, flower, and ornamental fruit production. Giant plume ginger is one of the more sun-tolerant gingers but probably still benefits from some afternoon shade. Soil should be reasonably well-drained.

Let me know if you have questions.

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Dr. Mary Helen Ferguson is an Extension Agent with the LSU AgCenter, with horticulture responsibilities in Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. Contact Mary Helen at mhferguson@agcenter.lsu.edu or 985-277-1850 (Hammond) or 985-839-7855 (Franklinton).