Last Saturday, the heavy downpour did not seem to be successful to deter a slight excess of 40 gardening enthusiasts who gathered at HortPark’s Fruit Room to learn more about bananas. I was the speaker of the day (and hence the Banana Man) and coincidentally, I was in a shirt that had blue stripes and my colleagues who were there likened me to the character in ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’!
On top of producing delicious fruits, bananas are well known to produce leaves that can be used as environmentally-friendly food receptacles and some varieties are valued for their edible flowers and stems. To buy banana flower buds and stems for cooking, one can visit the grocery shops that are located in the shophouses near Tekka Market. Do you know that there is also a range of ornamental bananas which are grown and appreciated for their form, attractive flowers, leaves and fruits?
In that talk, I first shared with my audience the range of ornamental banana species and cultivars that can be found locally which they can grow in their gardens. They were also informed where they can buy them, as well as, see them, such as in HortPark and the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Ginger Garden. Ivy Singh’s Bollywood Veggies is also a place to visit to see edible bananas.
I also took the opportunity to introduce to my audience the range of common edible bananas they are able to across in Singapore. They were also given tips on how to grow bananas, the common problems they will face while growing them and resources which they can look up to learn more.
