Casa Lester,

You are spot on!! . My banana plant is already 6 feet (to leaf tip that is).

My Ginger lily came up early this year.

So did the Elephant ears and sun chokes.

I am still waiting for my purslane tand basils to sprout.

After another mild winter of 2019/2020 our Musa basjoo, planted out in May 2011, has flowered for the first time.

We were hoping that it may bloom in 2019 - the first time it did not freeze to the ground, but since it didn't, we stopped paying much attention to it in 2020. To our amazement, in September we noticed an alien-looking corrugated hose inside its cluster and our original thought was that something else was growing there. But the hose had this huge flower at its end and a number of small banana rings along its length:

This flower was joined by a second one in October (pictured here in November after a few frosts):

Here's how the flowers look separated for better visibility:

In contrast, Musa velutina, which was planted out in April 2018, started blooming already in its first season (delayed until fall) and had a flower on almost every large stem in 2020:

The little pink bananas are packed with black seeds:

Casa Lester, I got 2 bunches on my basjoo for the first time !

Flowering for the first time!!