Winter hardy banana plant???

[Spott]

Ok, a few days ago I'm walking through the Home Depot plant dept (I just can't resist) looking for unusual plants. I stumbled upon what was labeled as "Winter Hardy banana plant".
There is of course no ID whatsoever about it apart from info for its care.
Here is a brief summary from the supplied tag:

Plant height 10-15 feet
Spacing 6 feet
This hardy banana can grow 2 feet per week with 6 foot leaves. Creamy yellow blooms are followed by ornamental yellow/green fruit.
Cut back to 2 feet after first frost and use the pruned leaves as protective cover through the winter.

So I bought two..... one I planted outside in full sun and the other I keep inside just in case the other fails.
Here are two pics I just took of the one inside to help with ID.

[buzzwinder]

Basjoo

[SteveW]

I'll second that

[Gabe15]

thirded.

[chong]

Is there such a thing as "fourthed"? Any, in Zone 5, you will need a lot of protection for that plant. But it can be done.

[Spott]

Cool, let's say I cover it with 6 inches (or more) of mulch AND cover that with an upside down bucket (the styrofoam kind sold exactly for that purpose), would that be protection enough?

[Spott]

I just photographed the one I planted outside.
Since it stops growing at about 5 degrees celsius I figure it has at least another month of growth left in it. I just hope it has time to develop a good enough root system before frost.
Here's a pic.

[chong]

Nice! Good job!

[Dean W.]

Spott, great buy, good luck overwintering them.

[Chironex]

There are many threads about different methods for insulating and overwintering your bananas. I would go thicker than 6" on the mulch, leaves or whatever you choose - even with the inverted pot over it. Better to be safe than sorry.

[magicgreen]

Spott,
IMO that is not enough time for a good root system to be established in your zone to be able to take the winter.
I planted a basjoo (my 1st banana) last year end of July. I unwrapped it in the spring and thought it was find.
Through the weeks it just leaned and leaned over and turned brown, and just dissapeared! I still look for it now ( cuz ya never know) lol.
I figured the root and corm were not strong and mature enough to make it through the z6 winter.
And also water might of gotten to the corm.
I planted a basjoo in April and I know this one is gonna make it for the upcoming winter. I'll post a pic of it a lil' later.
Good luck in whatever method you choose. Who know's....It might make it in the ground!
MG

[saltydad]

Hopefully it will make it with a good mulch. I use about a foot of hay around and over my p-stems, which are cut at about 12". My basjoos made it; my t. fortunei palms made it; hell even my L. chinensis palm made it (and it's zone 9 minimum). But my velutina didn't. Go figure.