Banana Overwintering

A lot of websites say if your banana is planted in the ground, you are to wrap it up or mulch heavily over winter. Or you are to chop it down to the soil level and store in a dark, cool basement. My banana is about 3' tall and is on my deck in a pot and I want to bring it inside for the winter if possible. I have a very bright living room with cool to moderate temperatures. Can anyone advise on this please as the nights in VA are getting in the 50's now and I must decide what to do with this lovely plant. Will it overwinter in my living room?

It will need alot of humidity & sunlight, or what I do with mine (that is also in a pot) is cut it down and just leave about 4" of the stalks and put it in a corner of my kitchen away from any heat vents and give it a misting every now & then. Mine has done great with this method, maybe others will give you different advice. I've already brought mine into my apartment and its sitting by the window, I'm not ready to cut it down just yet. Good Luck Christine

Store the roots leaving as much soil on them as possible in a dark cool but above freezing area. Wrap the roots in paper bags or cardboard and check every month to see if still moist. If a little dry spay a little water and rewrap. If plant is growing in a pot simply move the entire pot into dark above freezing area. Cut off leaves as they die if frost didn't kill them already.. In spring plant the wrapped one at depth level it was last growing season. For the potted one, re-dress top layer of soil in pot or if needed repot a size or two higher with best soil you have and lots of compost mixed in. Bananas are heavy feeders!

I would try it in your house.
My ornamental banana is OK in cold weather as long as the frost does not actually touch it. It is under a patio cover. It gets cold in there, and the leaves will eventually brown, but the root makes it through the winter just fine. In the late winter I will cut down the plant to about a foot high (where it is still green) and it regrows as big as the roof will allow.

In a more protected location I think yours will be just fine.
Of course there are different species and varieties, so what works for me might not work for a different plant.

I have overwintered banana in living room. Leaves that grew during summer outside eventually dried up. It got east sun in AM and had no extra humidity provided. Slowly produced some new leaves during this period inside and was put outside in Spring.
Good Luck with yours.

I am going to buy a ornamental container bannana with the information supplied in this post, thank you all for the information