Miracle Grow

We spent the weekend at our house in Texas clearing dead plants and leaves from our yard. The Houston area had a "harsh" January, with many consecutive days in the mid 20s. As a result, a number of our more delicate tropical trees & bushes bit the dust, including one of our beautiful 12-foot-tall palms. Our neighbors had informed us last year that the winter of '09-'10 was unusually severe, and we wouldn't see temperatures that low again for a decade. Oddly, the winter of '10-'11 proved to be just as cold.

Late February in south Texas is like late May in Michigan. The daytime temperatures are finally warm and people are out working on their yards, planting flowers, etc. Since our banana trees once again fell victim to some freezing weather, we cut back their trunks, hoping that they would regrow as they did last year. Imagine our shock when, only an hour after chopping them down on Saturday, new sprouts already began to shoot up. If they keep flourishing at this rate - an inch or two a day - the banana trees will be 15 feet tall by the time summer even starts. There are some real advantages to a long growing season!

We couldn't believe how quickly these new banana shoots shot up out of the cut-down trunks.