Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Hardy Tropicals for zone 5-6, 0 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
The true Sikkimensis does over winter here for me with a good mulching. The photo on that site though has a kid under the plant Ensete ventricosum Maurelli and is mislabled as Sikkimensis. Ensetes are considered hardy in zone 8. I have a friend who has grown them in Alabama for many years. Down their they do not lose the trunks like we do here from the cold. I think with a very well constructed mulching or extra protection you could over winter it in zone 6 but it would take more effort than the other forms. IE using heat cables can help out a lot to keep the plants form freezing during the cold days. Also bags of leaves and black plastic all help to heat up and keep the plants warmer. The best thinks I have used to keep plants warm is something that will decompose very fast like chopped up leaves brown hard wood mulch. Then with the black plastic heats up in the sun and will keep the mound from freezing it will freeze slightly but thaws out everytime the sun it out. The heating cables can get around 100f and I would only use them on stuff like ensetes around the base and only on very cold night. I have not over wintered a Ensete outside in many years I find with my large greenhouses digging them up seems to be faster. But I may try it again. Also not many people know this but if you chop the Ensete down when its a few feet tall it will pup ton. This only works when the main growth stem is destroyed. Good luck.

Here is a photo out front of our place. I have about 15 different cannas 4 different bananas and 7 different colocasias and a handfull of other things out their. In winter the plants are cut back to the ground and bananas about 2 feet from the ground. Then they are covered with about 6 inches of chopped up leaves. come spring most the leaves are removed the rest act much like mulch keeping out weeds. They rot and feed the plant and also keep them damp during summer. This is the 5 year they have been out.