Bananas in Arkansas?

One Gravette family has plants, blooms, and are hoping to see fruit

Tom Smith and four young swimmers enjoying the banana "tropical paradise" at the Smith home in Gravette. Swimmers, from the left, are Camille Smith, friends Hannah Frakes and Jessica Bookout and sister Cate Smith.
Tom Smith and four young swimmers enjoying the banana "tropical paradise" at the Smith home in Gravette. Swimmers, from the left, are Camille Smith, friends Hannah Frakes and Jessica Bookout and sister Cate Smith.

— What to a passerby looks like a tropical plant stretching above the yard fence in Gravette is exactly that. In fact, it’s dozens of plants not normally grown in northwest Arkansas.

And their owners are hoping they will be able to harvest some fruit from the plants before frost takes its toll and the plants retire for the winter.

Tom and Wendy Smith, who live at the corner of Atlanta and Fourth in Gravette, just west of the airplane in Kindley Park, have nurtured the huge green plants for several years. And what is amazing is the plants have proven winter hardy, coming up and sprouting additionalplants surrounding the pool in the Smiths’ back yard.

One of the plants bloomed several years ago, with no results. But this year, with an early summer season, nestled beneath the huge fronds of one plant is a blossom.

Will it’s fruit mature? Will the Smiths be able to pick bananas in their back yard? It’s iffy, but the Smiths can be hopeful.

In the meantime, they enjoy the ambiance of a South Sea setting as they and their two daughters, Camille and Cate, enjoy the pool and the patio cabana.

Tom settled in a chair poolside one sunny afternoon as the daughters and two friends enjoyed the cool water.

Smith said his friend Bob Bogle of Bentonville found and provided the hardy type bananaplants which require lots of water during the hot summer days as well as a good layer of mulch each winter.

News, Pages 1 on 07/25/2012