Bananas in Western NC???

[Marinemom]

Can somebody give me some advice on my bananas, PLEASE????
They are the Musa Basjoo variety. Okay, here goes:
I bought them online two years ago, kept them inside in pots the first winter and set them out this past spring~they grew quite well and are on average 5-6ft tall. Okay, I decided that I wanted BIG plants next spring so I chose not to cut down the stem, only wrap with insulation, Christmas lights, bubble wrap and then plastic and to top all that off, a huge black trash bag on top to keep the rain off of them.. I thought that would be sufficient for my area, zone 7 I think or maybe even 6b.. Well anyway, my hubby stopped at a man's house today and his banana's are so big every year that I figured surely he would save what he could of his stem, wrap it up tight and be good to go come spring~WRONG!!!! He chops his down and then just puts mulch around them... So herein is where your expertise comes in at: Should I cut them off and then rewrap, for fear of the water in the stems freezing or just leave them as is and hope for the best??? I do have pups in the spare bathtub just in case my "idea" didn't go so well come springtime...And by the way this is the first time I have ever dealt with banana plants... So if by chance ya'll have some great advice for me on what to do, I would so greatly appreciate it...And our weather has been up to 50, down to 20, up again, rain, wind, rain and more wind~
Thanks a bunch, Marinemom

[Marinemom]

Oh I forgot to tell you that I live in the foothills of NC~right where the mountains meet the hills and we get weird weather here, cause of the Thermal Belt, supposedly!!!!

[jeffreyp]

Banana Gallery - Musa Basjoo in East Lyme, Connecticut



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[Kaye-ccf]

I've grown a clump of basjoo for several years here in Seagrove, NC which is Zone 7. I never worried about mulching it or anything. It dies down after a hard freeze, so it mulches itself, but comes back up even bigger the next spring. I planted out a large pup I had overwintered in the cold frame last spring and it had a bloom this fall with a bunch of tiny bananas. I put a LOT of compost and composted manure in the soil. It had 10 pups before frost.
I've never tried to keep them from going down (unless I plan to divide and sell some) because they always get tall by mid-summer.
Hope this helps.

[shopgirl2]

I live in zone 8, coastal N.C. it freezes around here also. However, My Basjoos, bloomed this year and they were gorgeous (two summers). the bananas are about 3 to 4 inches and One banana plant had 15 but did not grow larger nor fatter than three inches.