Im not sure if Guildwood Cannas has tissue cultured plants but check them out.
www.guildwoodcannas.com

Hello Plantman,

Are you looking for plants for yourself or do you plan on growing them on and reselling them?

I know of several greenhouse business/nurseries located in Montreal that offer tropicals but none in Ontario.

If you are planning on growing the plants and reselling them, you can get small plugs from Agristarts in Florida. There is a minimum shipment required of 4 trays of plants.
No Canadian source of tissue culture Musa, Alocasia, or Colocasia exists.

"No Canadian source of tissue culture Musa, Alocasia, or Colocasia exists."

Try Ray Mattei at Tropic to Tropic, in Brititsh Columbia, CANADA!

Cheers, Barrie

Here is a link that might be useful: Tropic to Tropic (Banana page)

Barrie,

Are you sure that this company has tissue culture labs at their premises? I've never heard of any tissue culture labs producing tropicals anywhere in Canada. Also, I didn't see any Alocasias or Alocasias on their website.

MaryV_Montreal,

I personally know Ray, and he has many of his banana (Musa & Ensete) tissue culture done off site at a local Vancouver lab. I'm not 100% certain but I believe it was done at one of the universities. Whether or not it's still done there or somewhere else, I'm not sure.

Ray does have Colocasia (Alocasia...not sure) but I believe these are from division and not tissue culture.

So to answer your question more directly, bananas yes, Colocasia no.

Cheers, Barrie.

I guess my email wasnÂt clear. I was referring to plug suppliers of Musa, Alocasia, and Colocasia. ItÂs very surprising to hear that a Vancouver retailer would be producing tissue culture tropicals since this form of propagation is normally used by plug producers who sell to growers in very large quantities.

ThatÂs good to know since we buy Musa in plug sizes from Florida. IÂve recently noted that the Musa basjoo we obtained was not hardy at all as suggested by the grower  even with heavy winter protection, they didnÂt overwinter here or in Windsor, Ontario (Zone 6B/7). I suspect these may not have been the correct species. I see Tropic to tropic has them on their availability list  guess weÂll contact them.

MaryV_Montreal 5B ...

You raised an interesting point regarding tissue culture Musa basjoo. It's my contention and others as well, that these are inferior for reasons beyond my knowledge. I've had these fail here in our zone 8 winter and some never attain the real stature they're capable of. I've seen them sucker like crazy long before they get some size on them. They behave like the parent plant, perhaps fooling the plant into behaving like a mature Musa and therefore sending suckers. It's very likely you did recieve Musa basjoo, but a weak copy of the true plant.
I think Ray has these (or can have these) available in early spring in the plug form you're looking for. Also available is the popular, Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' which was also done in the lab.

The best forms are by divisions from the imports from Gerard Pury that he introduced back in the mid 80's to Vancouver. This strain is very robust and very hardy. Gerard is now in his 70's but still runs Oakridge Landscaping in Vancouver. He's concidered to be the God Father of exotic gardening on coastal BC.

Cheers, Barrie.(Vancouver Isl.)

La Presse (Montreal based newspaper) featured Musa basjoo in an article on hardy bananas about three years ago. I believe that they sited M. sikkemensis as well. Apparently, a resident of Casselman, Ontario (Zone 4) has had the plant survive for many years with protection. This article created much interest in hardy Musa in both Quebec and Ontario. As a result, our nursery was one of the first in this area to offer M. basjoo to customers. In fact, some of our suppliers stated that M. basjoo was hardy to Zone 2.

We planted about 20 plants last fall and protected them with a heavy winter mulch  all of them died. Strangely, another plant  a fuchsia hybrid was left in the ground alongside the Musas. The fuchsia (Zone 9?) survived.

I am quite skeptical at this point and personally, I do not believe the true Musa basjoo that is being sold to growers in this area. Tissue culture or not, these plants donÂt seem to fit the growth habits of M. basjoo  including as you said, multiplying at incredible rates as young plants. Unless you are very familiar with the plant, it would be difficult to tell M. basjoo apart from a number of other species without flowers and fruit.

MaryV_Montreal,

Well your best bet at this point would be to aquire the real Musa basjoo and grow it on to produce sufficent offsets to sell.
The gentleman you refer to in Casselman ON is Marc Ladoucer. He's well known for his exotics in cold climates.
As for a claim of M.basjoo suppliers stating hardiness to zone 2...I believe they should have to stand outside one night with these as penance for making such a claim. Absolute rubish!
So if you want the real McKoy, you'll have to bring it in from the Pacific coast. I can help you in this endevour if you are serious about aquiring Musa basjoo.

Cheers, Barrie.

I've had some experience with overwintering M. basjoo, and while I am not an expert, I did make some interesting discoveries. I planted a basjoo in my southeast-facing garden last summer. Thinking it would benefit from the additional protection, I planted it deeply. In the Fall, I covered it with bark chips, leaves and styrofoam. In the spring, I uncovered it to find that the remaining stalk was rotted. I dug down to the corm, and while it was firm, showed no signs of activity. I left it exposed, but nothing happened. The ground, however, remained cold in our lousy spring. In July, I said the heck with it, and started ripping it up......only to break off a lovely green sprout! So, I moved it to a pot, and it is making its come-back. My banana-growing friends warned me that it could be late making its debut, and they were right! Next time, I won't plant it so deeply, so that the sun will have a chance to warm up the earth. I will just have to mulch it heavily for the winter and be more patient in the spring!!

Ours start popping up in March here, and certainly by April at the latest. I've had them come up in the compost I guess from some agressive weeding. I've used mulch and also left them to freeze down. There's hardly a difference between the 2 methods by the end of summer, because they grow so fast.

Cheers, Barrie (Vancouver Island)