Just like you I thought my Banana's were dead to the world . I just kept mine in a plastic pot in the basement , no water. Well I planted them outside a month ago in a pot , its still in the 40 - 70's here . When I looked at the pot was week I didnt see anything so I decide to add it to the compost pile . When I dumped the pot , I see 3 tubers with 1" sprouts growing . I replanted them in a pot and brought them inside and stuck them in my gas oven in the kitchen . The pilot light is always on so I figured the heat would help . Five days later and they are touching the inside of the oven and I have 9 babies so far . So dont give up , plant them and kept them warm for a while and see what happens . I wish I knew this before I threw out my other Banana a few years ago .Rick

Monty,

I think you could treat your bananas the same as your cannas. In the Fall, after I dig them up, I wash off most of the soil, and cut off all but the newest leaf. Let them drip-dry a bit, then replant in the smallest pot they'll fit in, with mostly dry, fresh potting soil, although peat moss would be fine. If you like, you may wish to dust the corm with Rootone, or spray lightly with a fungicide before planting. Don't water at all until maybe Feb. or March -- and then very sparingly. You may start to see it pushing out new leaves by that time. How warm is your cellar? I think the shopping bag may have had something to do with it. Just guessing though. Also, some varieties are just harder to winter over than others. I found Zebrinas too be a bit more difficult than some others - like Raja puri, Brazilian, or Ensete maurellii.

It may have been to cold? Also, I don't wrap mine with anything, but leave them open to the air. Since its a corm, the canna analogy is probably a good one. And you could try planting the remnants- nothing to loose.

Here is what I have found:

The time in the sun-room could have caused more harm than good. Also, you shouldn't need to wrap the corm. Just set it in a pot without extra soil and it will be fine. The ideal environment would be 40-50 degrees F.

When overwintering bananas you need to get them fast into dormancy. You don't want to make them use up their energy-reserves trying to push out new growth during fall and early winter. Preferably it should also be dark.

Bananas are tough ba***rds, and will fight to grow.
It's like putting a young child to bed, and even bananas need to know their bed-times!

Here is the mistake I did:
I had a bunch of nice basjoos that were getting large by september. I tried to make them even larger by getting them to grow in pots in my (seasonal) dark and dry living room. When they started looking unattractive and slow-growing, I stuck them in our basement. I kept them dry, cool, and all the tricks in the book were followed. None of these survived because the plants were simply exhausted trying to push out growth in a much less than ideal environment.

But 2 (musa basjoo) plants were left outside untill October, and the frosts had killed the leaves. These were then naturally dormant, and the stems and roots were firm. I stuck these in the basement and treated them as the ones above. They came back in April, and they have allready produced 4-5 new pups each.

Good luck!
Erlend