Your banana's look awesome!!!
I have two Musa's, I left them in the ground over the winter, we had a brutal one, and they both survived. I simply cut down the stalk to about 6 inches, covered the stalk with about 2 feet of chopped up leaves. The first sign of spring, I dug away the leaves, and bam I had growth!!!

With the mild winters that we've been having lately, I'm tempted to leave a few of my plants in the ground too. I may give it a try.

Sounds great. You wont regret trying banana's. I ripped my entire backyard up, wrote up some plans. One side of yard has a tiny strip of grass left to mow. I went out and bought a reel mower, no more gas! Heck I can use a weed eater to cut my lawn its so small now with all the plants and bushes.
I planted privet bushes, tropicals,flowers, ornamental grasses,vines,rose of sharons,elephant ears,iris,salvia. I cut down the tall trees to allow sun for the tropicals which by the way are now acting as shade.
I also went on the side of the backroads to collect some wild Golden Rod, and some flowers I have no idea what they are. If I see a flower I like on the backroads, I dig it out, just be careful when doing this, and make sure your not breaking any laws.
I now have a jungle in Kentucky. When spring comes, I know its almost time for the show to begin.

There is absolutely nothing better for the mind and the soul than having a wonderful garden to enjoy. The stuff you plant becomes apart of you.
None of my plants or tropicals have died from the winter with proper cover.

Hey that's interesting. I bought a reel mower this year too. And I couldn't agree more about the nothing better for the mind and soul.

Hi,

I grew my first banana this year from a corm and it's almost ten ft tall in the pot I have it in.

I'm in Wayne and havenlt decided what to do yet for the winter. Do you just pull the whole thing in the garage and leave it all winter ? Without cutting it down ?

Is your garage heated ?

Thanks for the link and pictures.

This spring I planted a musa basjoo seedling in the garden. With some composted manure, regular fertilizer and watering it grew to about 5 feet high with big impressive leaves. It wasn't even the warmest summer and the plant was in 75% full sun, but not total full sun.

I have two basjoo's and one I will try to overwinter in a dark basement, the other in the kitchen window as a houseplant. I'm not sure how the basement one will work out, since the basement isn't that cool in winter as one might expect.

I also have an ensete that I started from seed a year ago and overwintered as a houseplant last winter. I watered sparingly and put it in a north facing window. Also, if you have forced air heat be sure the air doesn't blow directly on the plant or it encourages spider mites.

When my ensete went back outside in spring it lost most of it's leaves (they were floppy from lack of light and easily tattered in wind and sunburned), but the new ones were normal. I transplanted into a slightly bigger pot but, while it looked nice this season, it didn't gain much height. I think I should have either fertilized more than once a week or, probably more ideally, I think it really would have done better planted directly into the ground.

Glenn