Heatwave helps garden plant 'go bananas'

A banana plant in a woman's garden has produced 24 pieces of fruit due to the hot weather.

Cathy Neville, from Seaton, near Looe in Cornwall, said she had been "really surprised" when the 11ft-high (3.35m) plant she was given as a gift seven year's ago had "gone bananas".

The Eden Project's director of horticulture, Peter Jones, said: "Although banana plants can thrive in this part of the country, it is very unusual to have one that produces fruit."

Guy Barter, from the Royal Horticultural Society, said bananas never used to flower 20 years ago in the UK and attributed Neville's fruit to the climate having become warmer.

Neville said the plant was "tiny" when she planted it.

"I just kept emptying the ash from our fire, because they like potash, and mulching the base of it, and they've just gone bananas," she continued.

"I was really surprised, I knew it could happen but I know it's unusual. It's fantastic to see the plant doing what it's supposed to do.

"It's quite an impressive flower, I've never seen one before, it looks a bit like a coconut.

"It's quite a damp valley that we live in so there's a lot of moisture in the air that will help them to grow."

Neville, who has had horticulture training at Kew Gardens in London and is a member of a gardening group, said she did not think there was a recorded case in the UK of people being able to grow bananas to eat, except perhaps in a biome.

Barter said heat-loving plants such as olives, figs and apricots were also excelling as temperatures rose, while traditional British crops like gooseberries and rhubarb were declining in some areas.

"The climate is getting warmer and bananas never used to flower 20 years ago," he said.

"It would be a red letter day when the banana flowered."

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