At Discovery Garden Pattaya we arguably show the greatest variety of bananas all over Thailand. We have red bananas, Tiger bananas, some with seeds and some with stripes. We grow delicious bananas and others only for ornamental reasons. Visit the “Banana Republic” at our place or buy the most unusual bananas from Discovery Garden in Pattaya and Nong Khai.
Red bananas and many others can be seen at Discovery Garden Pattaya
My very first plant I grew in Thailand was a banana. I was surprised to hear in 1991 – just after arriving here from my native Switzerland where no bananas are grown – that one could just take an offshoot of a mature banana and thus gain an identical new plant. Also surprising to me was the fact: A banana plant only bears fruits once and then is cut down or dies naturally. So I took that precious offshoot in humid newspaper sheets on the train from Nong Khai to Bangkok where I was living at the time and planted it carefully in our then very small garden.
Offshoots are one way of propagating bananas
The next Thai banana wonder was: There really also are bananas which can be propagated with seeds! Naturally, I had to have one of those and planted it on my huge plot of land which has nowadays become Discovery Garden Pattaya.
Bananas can have seeds
Other banana wonders were finally discovered by an impressed Swiss tropical gardener: There are banana varieties with white stripes on the leaves.
Banana leaves with white stripes
And the fruits of those bananas have white stripes as well.
White stripes develop when ripening and they have seeds as well
Very pretty are the tiger bananas with the beautiful red spots on the leaves which mimic a tiger skin.
Tiger bananas have red dots on their leaves
The fruits of the tiger bananas are pretty as well, but not for eating. They contain lots of seeds.
Decorative red banana fruits, but not for eating
Then meet the bananas with black stems coming from Papua New Guinea.
Black stems, but yellow bananas
This yellow beauty can be admired too at Discovery Garden in Pattaya.
A decorative banana flower
And this pink diva stands out as well.
A pink banana flower
She bears little red bananas which open up themselves and release lots of seeds.
This purely decorative banana contains seeds
This banana type produces lots of fruits, but they are not edible.
Growing to the ground
It grows all the way down…
Longer and longer…
It grows all the way down to the ground, it seems.
More and more…
These red bananas are edible when really ripe.
Red bananas look good…
They actually taste terrific.
Red can be very tasty
Many banana flowers are edible as well and beautiful…
Banana flowers are edible
And this multi headed banana is part of the freak show at Discovery Garden.
Many flowers on one banana stem
And this is a colleague.
Here the single bananas are grown together
Sie haben immer wieder neue Ideen. Diesmal war es die Nuss, aber haben sie inzwischen auch shon eine Kochbanane ( Plantine ) in ihrem Garten. Ich kenne diese aus Westafrika, wo ich lange Jahre gearbeitet habe. Die reifen Plantinen sind oangefarben und man kann ein tolles Fruehstueck daraus machen.
MfG Wilfried Pieper