I can't imangine that a bird of paradise or heliconia would suvive if you were to overwinter it like that. There are many bromeliads that can be brought inside and grown as houseplants over the winter. I would think that overwintering a bromeliad would kill it too.

you might be able to do the gingers that way. the hedychiums etc. I have never done it, but it seems like you might be able to.

When you say 'put them in bags in the basement', I'm not exactly sure what you are doing. Do you include soil, add peat or do you just knock off the soil and store bareroot in a bag? Is the basement warm or cool or cold? Is there light or darkness? Do you water or not?

I store cannas with minimum soil in bags, but keep them cool and don't water much. I store bananas in large pots in the garage (which has a small heater and averages about 45-50 degrees F), but they have 2 to 3 large leaves. I don't cut them back at all and I do water every once in a while to keep the root ball from shrinking. I cut back brugs to the main branches and keep in pots in the cool garage. They are watered every couple weeks. Plumerias should be kept cool (not cold), dark and mostly dry in pots. I actually have some in garage where it's cool, some in the house where it's warmer. Still experimenting with those. Cane begonias are in pots in garage. They're cut back and watered just a bit. Amaryllis, tuberoses, gingers are kept mostly dry in pots in garage as well. Epiphyllums are in pots in garage under lights. THey are watered when dry.

That's the kind of info I'm looking for!! Thank you. My "put in a bag" in the basement comment was a simplistic way of saying it without getting into a bunch of detail. The garage in pots, basement in bags with peat . . . these are the kind of plants I am looking for. Plants that don't HAVE to be treated as houseplants with full sun or special grow lights.

I keep a non-hardy Hydrangea in my garage over the winter in a pot with no pruning and only 1-3 waterings all winter.
I have been highly successful with this. My garage does not freeze but it does get below 45 degrees. If I forget about the Hydrangea when spring is approaching, it will start to leaf out on it's own with very pale green leaves. Once I pull it outside, the leaves darken and it happily starts to grow once again.

I did have someone say that they do put Bromeliads in bags in the basement but I just don't think it makes sense. They like humidity and light too much and they are not hard to keep going inside with average light. I guess it depends on the variety.

I had one person tell me that they have an 8 foot cactus (again, I don't know the variety) and they lay the whole plant in the pot down on the ground in the basement all winter without any water or light . . . pick it up in the spring and put it back outside and they have been doing this for a couple years now successfully! I guess a lot of things are just experiments.

You can keep almost any Cactus, Agave and even Cycad dry, cold and dark during the winter. I speak from years of experience. Can't really cut them back though. Just offering a suggestion.

Heliconia: you can let the foliage die and regrow from the rhizome but you won't get blooms that way.

Bird of Paradise is different from cannas and bananas. It grows very slowly. Cutting it back significantly would stunt the plant and it would take a very long growing season to revive the previous growth.

Most plants that can't take going dormant and dying back to the roots will not tolerate winter long/no sunlight conditions. The few plants that can be induced to do that are things like Brugmansia, Iochroma, Cestrum, etc, but only if they were large enough to have sufficient energy stored in the roots to allow them to resprout and grow in the spring. Otherwise, you are best off with tropicals that grow into subtropical areas and are accustomed to freezing back to the roots occasionally, and will regrow. These types of plants would include the bulbous sorts like the Alocasias, Colocasias, Hedychiums, Alpinias, Cautleyas, etc. Other subtropical/mediterranean bulbs would also fit into this treatment, such as Calla Lilies, Cannas, Agapanthus, and many others.

I can tell you without question, there are no bromeliads that can be put into the dark all winter and regrow in the spring. Any plant that is typically slower in growth and has evergreen leaves that it keeps for years at a time will typically not survive those conditions. There are a few deciduous species of Bromeliads such as Pitcairnea species that can lose all their foliage under drought stress and then regrow, but these wouldn't be common plants you would likely be able to purchase in any case, so these exceptions don't outweigh the general statement about bromeliads.

There is lots of information out there both on this forum and the internet in general about what plants people dig up and overwinter without heat and/or sunlight over winter, you just need to do a proper search.

jennifer, I was going to add that if you have a space that stays cool (around 45-50 degrees) and does not freeze, you have a goldmine! If you have no light, you can add a couple flourescents on timers. Then you can winter-over many, many plants, including gardenias, bananas, brugs, plumeria, some palms, cycads, etc. These things don't require all that much light if they are kept fairly cool and somewhat dry. Plus, the cooler temperatures really discourage the bug problems (mites, for example) that you would see in a warmer environment.

A few to add to the list, that can be kept cool and dark in pots:
Callistemon
Phormium
Caesalpinia pulcherrima (it is semi-deciduous)
Pelargonium (common garden Geraniums)
most cold-hardy Palms, ex-Trachycarpus, Chamaerops, etc.
many caudiciform succulents