Banana tree and winter protection

I think you trim it back when it starts to get cold and then you could make it a blanket out of fleece and sacking. I saw a friend's which looked in a terrible state last winter but has grown up larger than ever this summer.

ps it's a herbaceous plant, not a tree
Winds are not good for banana plants.

Advice from Wisley:
www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/wisley/protecting-bananas-over-winter

I think letting the wet get into the top would not be good, so it could need a waterproof 'hat'.

Thanks jalima. All looks a bit of a faff!
Looks really exotic at the moment but not going to look very elegant with all that plastic and packing on through the winter!

Try chopping the leaves off and wrapping the rest in fleece perhaps?

We did have a cordyline which grew into a tree, but what finished that off was snow and ice lying in the top of it and I think it rotted.

This sounds easy:

Cut the in-ground banana plant back with a sharp, clean machete right before the first expected frost.
Apply a 4- to 6-inch-deep layer of mulch to the banana’s root area.
Wrap the trunk with an old fleece blanket.
Flip a cheap plastic garbage can upside down, and cover the banana stump with it.
Remove the garbage can and trunk wrap in the spring after all danger of frost has passed.

Could you possibly ask the previous owners what they used to do?

Yes loopyloo they might try that! I think there were some fleece covers left in the greenhouse by the previous owners.

Sorry I can’t stand the idea of an upside down bin in a prominent bit of the garden jamila

A garden down the road from us has three large banana trees in their garden. In winter they are wrapped in bubble wrap but last Christmas they they covered them in white fleece and turned them into a snowman family.

My grandsons would love that grandma!