Hello from 5280
I'm crazy... trying to grow bananas at over a mile high altitude!
I moved to Denver from the L.A. area and miss the tropical vegetation. I had been growing other types of Bananas each summer, and bringing them indoors for winter. But I really don't have a good indoor space. So last spring I found a nice sized Musa Basjoo from a local garden center and it grew taller than any other I've tried.
I decided to over-winter it outdoors, trimming the trunk back to about 4' and covered it with two layers of bubble wrap, then filled a trash bag with leaves and covered that mess (plus 3 or 4 pups I bubble wrapped), then about a food of leaves around it all, and covered all of that with a nice green frost tent.
It's been quite warm here recently and I felt to see if the main trunk was still firm, and the top isn't. But it feels firm down low. Probably a good sign. I truly hope this makes it and blooms again! The coldest we've been is 6 above 0 this winter, and no high temps below upper teens, maybe low 20s. Overall, it hasn't been a bad winter here, so it was a good year to start this experiment.
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