1870 Banana Courtyard French Quarter/New Orleans - Here's a note from Mary Ramsey, "the Banana Lady" explaining her relationship with the 40 ft. banana tree that shades the inn. THE HAVANA, ATLANTA, TENNESSEE, MARDI GRAS, BANANA TREE:
"In 1958, I accompanied my grandparents to Cuba. We frequently heard rumblings (explosions) in the hills. Our tour guide attributed the noise to people shooting off fireworks during a fiesta celebration. As we were to find out later, those were actually Fidel Castro's 's guerilla troops shooting at Batista's military troops.
When we visited one of the banana plantations, we bought a small banana tree, about 3' tall. We took it back home to Atlanta and planted it. Each winter, my grandparents would dig it up and take it to the basement (yes, in Atlanta, unlike New Orleans, we had basements). When my grandparents retired to Tennessee, they dug up the tree again, and took it with them. Just as before, each winter the tree was banished to the basement. Finally, my grandmother decided she was to old to continue this tradition. Since we lived in New Orleans, she knew it could flourish here.
So we took the tree to our home on Napoleon Avenue, uptown. On Mardi Gras Day, we had a party while the parades rolled down the Avenue in front of our house. During the party, guests helped plant the banana tree. It flourished and grew taller than our 2-storey house. A few years later, we moved across the lake and renovated another house there. We, of course, replanted the banana tree. After about 4-years, we packed up again and moved back to New Orleans, because the commute was killing us. We bought a house near the river and planted the tree there. After a couple of years, we gave up on the "burbs," and moved to the house, which is now our B&B. The banana tree has hopefully come to its final resting place: Banana Courtyard."
