Just finished the process last weekend here. Temperatures are beginning to dip below freezing at night. I hate dismantling the garden..........but, my spring seed orders have already started arriving! Meanwhile, the house is crowded with tender tropicals for the winter......I got palms in the livingroom, bananas in the bedroom......

I missed saving the smaller Musa Basjoos this year, but next year I will. I am growing lots of small palms in my greenhouse inside for spring and years to come.

It is sad, but I feel like we got an extended growing season this year - a month or more later than usual for the first killing frost.

I am leaving my basjoos out after good luck doing so last winter, plus I have an awesome potted blood banana that I'm keeping indoors. About 15 potted hibiscus, a lovely shrub allamanda, a dipladenia, and two tropical waterlilies, and a bougainvilla will spend the winter in my spare bedroom growroom, with plant lights, a fan, and a humidifier - almost an indoor greenhouse really. Crowded but fun!

I brought some canna tubers in but am leaving some out as well to see if I can get them through a winter. Never have yet but hope springs eternal!

From my experience, the cannas will do fine if: they don't freeze....so mulch them heavily, AND most importantly, they stay relatively dry, especially in the spring. Cold wet spring weather will make them rot very quickly. I left some in the ground for the winter a couple of years ago. They made it through just fine, but then we got rain and cold in the spring. They turned black. Lesson learned!

Mine are in a raised bed with about 8 inches of pinestraw over them and the soil is well drained. I have heard this too that it isn't the cold so much as it is the cold/rain with the thaw.