Bananas! Surprise as back garden plant bears fruit

A banana plant added to a back garden to create a tropical paradise has begun producing fruit, to the "complete surprise" of its owner.

Stephen Hind, of Pettistree near Wickham Market in Suffolk, bought the tree a few years ago and planted it by his back door because "they just look good".

The retired transport manager has filled his garden with exotic greenery, from Chinese rhubarb plants to cabbage trees, and says he believes climate change and the recent scorching temperatures have helped the fruit thrive.

"But it's nice to sit there, look at all of these jungle plants with a gin and tonic on my sofa and think that you are on holiday," the 76-year-old added.

"This particular banana plant has been getting bigger each year and now it's up to about 12ft, but I didn't think [growing bananas on it] was possible."

But despite his burgeoning bunches, it is unlikely the bananas will be edible.

"I've never heard of it in England myself, so it came as a complete surprise, but now I'm just waiting to see how much bigger they will get," he added.

"There's at least 20 of them but I don't think they will be edible, but I like to think they will be, so I will have to give it a go when they get a bit bigger.

"My friend came from Jamaica and so grew up with bananas and he is quite amazed by this."

Hind bought his banana plant from the Henstead Exotic Garden, run by Andrew Brogan, who said Hind's bananas "look great" but would not be edible.

"The slightly even worse news is once they flower and fruit, then that particular trunk will die, but it will sprout new ones from the base, so it is interesting," he said.

Bananas are traditionally grown in humid and tropical conditions, in countries like India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Philippines.

Simon Middleton, from the Norwich-based Tropic Biosciences which created a new variety of banana using gene-editing techniques, said it was "certainly possible to grow banana plants under glass in the UK".

He added: "Some varieties can also be grown outdoors in a warm, sunny and sheltered position.

"We grow banana plants ourselves here as part of our research. However, getting a banana plant to flower and produce edible fruit is a much greater challenge in the UK climate.

"If [Stephen] has successfully grown a plant that has produced edible fruit, then he has done extremely well."

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