This postcard from Southern Pines in 1910 shows “Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Powell among their bananas.” Bananas? I realize that there has been significant climate change over the past century, but I don’t believe that it was ever possible to cultivate tropical fruit in North Carolina. Even when I zoom in I can’t see anything that I would recognize as a banana. Perhaps this was an older nickname for some other kind of plant common to the region. I’d like for this to be possible though. Just imagine how good the banana pudding at local barbecue restaurants would be if they made it with fruit fresh from the garden.
Well, those are definitely banana trees, but I have no idea how they survive the winters here. However, there is at least one farm in the Triangle that grows bananas: Blue Sky Farms in Wendell.
A while ago at Duke I saw a pamphlet published by the Seaboard Air Line, called ‘The Carolina Fruit Hills’, recruiting investors to plant fruit orchards in the Sandhills of North Carolina. We have it in our Special Collections, but it looks like you have it in the NCC too. Anyway, it may provide some background for the Southern Pines bananas postcard. Also, there’s a banana tree in Duke Gardens, but I’ve never seen any fruit on it.
[...] Will Sexton’s tip I looked at the Carolina Fruit Hills pamphlet published by the Seaboard Air Line Railway in the [...]
I have banana plants growing in my home in Burlington, NC as do a few neighbors.
Some types of bananas are “root hardy” here, dying down to the ground in the winter. Others can be protected without much diffculty or stored for the Winter when they go dormant … or just moved inside.
Carolina king is a type of musa originally cultivated in the Wilmigton area that I grow on the outer banks
Dwarf orinoco, Blue Java, Gold finger, and several others are cold hardy to zone 7b-8 which includes the Sandhills of North Carolina I know several people in NC who get bananas to fruit as well as in SC for more info http://www.bananas.org
Bill I would love to get hold of some Carolina king pups if you have some or if you know anyone who has any. I grow many varieties in Carthage which is close to Southern Pines
I have a few in my yard which I planted last year and one of them is actually fruiting albeith late in the season. Raleigh,NC
My Basjoo bananas are fruiting here in Raleigh and at the coast the Cavendish bananas fruit on a regular basis in my parents yard.