52 Photos Project: Layers/Stacks

This week it is Layers/Stacks over at 52 Photos Project.  There was so much to choose from:  stacks of quilts, stacks of books, stacks of quilt books...

In the end though, I went for the banana blossom.  We have SIX now, very exciting.  For me anyhow.  We have never had more than one a season in the past & had none for the past few years.  I know the reason is extremely cold winters coupled with crowding in that corner of the yard making us thin out the big banana tree trunks.  But last winter was mild & the summer before we did very little to the plant, clean-up-wise.  Now that we have pavers running between many of the plants, we hope not to have that crowding problem again.  Not that the bananas respect the pavers, but when a shoot comes up & lifts a paver off the ground, it is easy to see which little grove needs some cutting back.

When the blooms first emerge from the top of the stalk, they are not the rich purple they will become, but they are still odd looking.  They look like something surfacing, a lizard or a sea monster.  Once the whole shoot is out, it broadens at the base & the leaves begin to turn purple.  The stalk continues to grow, but the blossom gets heavier, curving it back down & then the layers really emerge. 

The first layer of purple peels back & underneath is an arc of small new bananas.  Once exposed they will also plump up & change color, the stalk will grow & further along, another petal will fall away & there will be another arc of new bananas.