I would transplant it into a 15 gallon pot, bring it inside, and either cut the leaves and stem back to a manageable height and let it grow back during the winter in good sunlight, or cut it back to a three or four foot stump and stick in a very cool part of your basement or garage as long as it does not freeze. It will stay dormant if cool enough, until Spring. Just water it once or twice so that the roots don't totally dry out. Make sure the soil you plant it in is very pourous, so that the roots don't rot. I've done both methods for several years and they seem to do fine. If you keep it up in the warmth and light, you may need to spray for spider mites and other insects throughout the winter, or manually wash the leaves, which is a hassle.

here's what i do (you need to figure out for yourself what you want to try):

i dig out a manageable rootball, trim all the leaves except the newest one, and store the rootball in a garbage bag with the stem sticking out. i fill the bag with pine bark mulch to keep the roots from dessicating, and the whole plant goes into my cool, dark garage all winter (35F - 55F). the biggest problem for me is aphids in early spring, which are easily managed with home-made spray concoctions.

in march, i pot it up and i keep it in the living room for about 4 weeks of warmth to "activate" the plant, then in april i harden it off in the pot outside, then it goes out early may into the ground.

by early july it is spectacular again.

x

Thanks! just the info I needed!

In case others read this thread, I want to tell my experience. I overwintered my ensete last year, as a houseplant in a pot. Gave it a kitchen north facing window, because that's all that was available. Severely withheld water (in fact I'm surprised it didn't droop from lack of water) but did water once every few weeks just a bit. Though I didn't see spider mites, I sprayed once in a while with neem oil/water as a precaution. My plant was beside a heating vent, so I bought an air deflector for the heating vent to direct the air in a different direction than up on the plant.

In spring, gradually get the plant used to outdoors again, just like annual flowers. The leaves that the plant grows indoors over winter are often 'thinner' and more floppy, so expect those leaves to be destroyed when the plant goes outside again but the new leaves produced outdoors will look good.

Glen

Is you cut back the ensete trunk, where do the new leaves grow back? From the top of the cut off trunk? From hte side of the trunk?

Jo-Ann

For several years I have cut some of my ensete back to three food stumps when bringing them in for the winter. They have always grown back with new leaves. They send out new leaves from the crown, where all of the other leaves have come from.

Kevin