Жительница дома престарелых в Колорадо выращивает бананы в теплице

After spending countless hours pampering a banana tree to help it grow in Colorado’s climate, Tom Kearns is eager to enjoy the literal fruits of his labor. Or at least in six months, when those bananas ripen. In the middle of a greenhouse at The Lodge, an assisted living center in Greeley, a banana tree stands tall with large, billowing leaves that crowd up against the ceiling. A year and a half ago, the tree was only about a foot tall. Now, about 100 bananas are growing from the tree. At 89 years old, Kearns wanted a challenge, and he thought growing a banana tree in Colorado would fit that bill perfectly. Tropical plants thrive in high humidity, a lot of water and year-round warm temperatures. Denver Botanic Gardens assistant curator Nick Giaquinto said that’s almost the exact opposite of Colorado’s dry climate and freezing temperatures. “It is best to grow tropical plants indoors, and even then, it can be hard to replicate ideal climate conditions for them,” Giaquinto said. Growing a banana tree outside of its ideal climate requires a lot of maintenance. Kearns said he has been pampering that tree like no other plant before. It needs at least a gallon and a half of water daily, and he’s had to cut off any tree shoots to make sure the tree focuses growing the fruit. He’s also used leaves from the tree as a fertilizer and to help lock in moisture. using the banana tree leaves as fertilizer and to help lock in moisture. “Growing anything is a challenge,” Kearns said. Since February 2025, Kearns has spent hours every day doting on the tree. Luckily, The Lodge has a greenhouse that does a lot of the temperature control work for Kearns. It can take multiple years for the tree to be able to produce fruit, Giaquinto said, and it depends more on the health of a tree rather than its age. He said keeping the plant in ideal conditions can have it producing fruit quickly. The Denver Botanic Gardens and many other botanic gardens in the country have grown fruit-bearing banana trees, Giaquinto said. Kearns has always enjoyed gardening, and now he often has other Lodge residents asking him for help to nurse a plant back to life. In his 30s, Kearns worked around the clock as a firefighter in Chicago. He had a lot of land, and so he decided to keep himself busy by picking up horticulture. “In those 48 hours, I had to do something,” Kearns said. Kearns hopes his fellow residents at the Lodge like the taste of bananas as much as he does. Once they ripen, he plans to drop them off at the kitchen and have the cooks figure out how to use them. After all, he’s a gardener, not a chef.