In coastal gardens, it has become increasingly popular to grow the hardy banana tree ( Musa basjoo).
But this is a tree that, left unprotected from sub-zero temperatures during winter, will die down to the ground.
It will revive and bounce back up; however, the pseudo-trunk (what we recognize as the trunk) would be gone.
The idea of growing hardy banana trees in coastal gardens is to get them as tall as possible, so they simulate the look of a tropical island with massive banana leaves gently moving in the breeze.
To achieve this, you need to wrap your banana tree every fall to insulate it from cold damage.
If you do this, the integrity of the trunk is kept in shape and the tree will produce its new growth — the new giant leaves — from the top of the trunk.
Many people in Metro Vancouver have done this and have managed over years to establish large clumps of banana trees, some of which even bear fruit in a good summer, although the fruit is rarely edible.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/This+week+Weathering+winter/3787936/story.html#ixzz14m0WufkA