Hey, yardman, we did dodge the bullet, didn't we, thanks to the clouds off of that storm system in Ohio. It was like 38 at Oakland Pontiac Airport just a few miles NW of my house, and 32 in Lansing.

Anyway, I assume this is an in-ground banana and not potted. I've wintered them a lot of years with probably 90-95% success. Just dig it up before the frost/freeze really does zap it, and leave a little bit, like six inches, of soil clinging to the bulb (if possible, if it's really sand or something and falls off, don't sweat it). Cut all of the leaves off (ok to leave the curled leaves at the top.

Put the root into a big paper lawn and leaf bag, and then pack some DRY inert material around the root and part way up the pseudostem -- sawdust, shredded newspaper, sphaghnum moss. Then, tie up the bag in a couple places around the pseudostem so it will stay on.

Store it for the winter somewhere dry and cool but non-freezing. I put mine in the utility room in the basement behind my water softener, in total darkness, and never water them all winter.

Generally, the entire pseudostem will survive quite nicely. Sometimes, it will rot off part of the way down. Generally, several leaves will continue to grow and unfurl over the winter, and will be yellow/white due to no light.

In spring, when it's safe, just replant it, and it will hardly miss a beat.

Deninmi - thanks for your advise. It's like it's a baby or something. It grew a good 6 feet this summer and was such a riot and conversational piece along our pool.

I am reluctant to actually cut off the leaves. I can try to store in my basement; however, it stays fairly warm because it is a mostly finished off walkout to the south with tons of windows. We do have a storage room, but it gets in the upper 60's in there too. My garage is attached, but not insulated, so it can dip down real cold; especially when the kids leave the overhead door open most days.

Thanks for your help and description; you've given me enough direction too go ahead. I will try to find the coolest and darkest area of the unfished part of the basement, but we still have some windows.... I hope it doesn't rot!

Well, you don't have to cut off the leaves, it's just that if you store it this way, most of them are going to shrivel up anyway. But, heck, leave some on and see what happens?

As far as rotting goes, the main thing that seems to cause problems for me is if I bruise or cut into the pseudostem. A couple of times I've accidentally crushed them enough to be obvious (ruptured skin, sap oozing, dark sunken appearance) and that is where they start to rot. Maybe you could tape three or four bamboo poles to the pseudostem before you dig it to reinforce it. The other thing you could do is fungicide the heck out of it like the day before you dig it up, kind of like we do with the crowns of the palms before we wrap them.

My basement probably hovers around 65 in the winter, at least higher up, because all of the heat comes out at ceiling height down there, so those temps are fine.