Survived the coldest recent winter of -3f with only a sheet of plastic over it, which in reality does not thermally insulate. It only allows it to leaf out earlier and sheds water away from the crown, which is beneficial so that it will not rot.
They love nitrogen and "moisture" to go along with it. I gave copious amounts of blood in midsummer and was rewarded with rich green leaves. Urea is very efficient also. The only time I've seen these struggle is when they dry out or lack nitrogen.
As their crown rises to the surface each growing season, there is more winter exposure to surface freezing on the mother plant, which may result in only pups arising in spring.
Makes a great sacrifice to the first frost and may even put out another new leaf before first freeze

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I was able to successfully overwinter this plant for a few years in my zone 5 garden with heavy mulching and a couple feet of snow to insulate it. The problem I had was that it's just too windy here for it, even on the lee side of the house. The leaves always ended up getting shredded and looking awful. It never attained any height to speak of in our short growing season. I decided it wasn't worth it after a few seasons.

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To overwinter, in early to mid November I cut the pseudo-stem(s) to about 1' above the ground. Create a mulch pile of straw to about 2'H x 6'W. Place a plastic sheet over the pile large enough (about 3x3') to cover the p-stems, then add leaves and more straw to about 3'H. I'll add more straw a few weeks later after the pile has settled. A finished pile 3'H x 6' diameter worked for me. This may be overkill for my zone.

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Basjoo gave up the ghost for me in the UK, even kept inside over winter! After a couple of cold summers with temperatures mostly between 14-16C I guess it didn't have the will to grow and flourish, bananas stop growing at those temperatures.

I still have a lone Musa sikkimensis I grew from seed which is hanging on, it does better although it's not that great, I bring it inside over winter now I'm down to one. If we have warmth in spring that does help if put in a greenhouse but springs of the last few years have been lousy too, at times 4-6C in April. Spring often doesn't roll on until three weeks into April, then it can be sporadic.

USDA zones don't reflect the growing season or maximum temperatures, they only reflect the expected minimum which puts us in zone 8a although every 20 to 30 years we get an exceptionally cold winter as we had last winter with temps. at or below freezing for 7 weeks and down to -17C at night.

The tall and short of it is you need a good long season and more warmth than we get for any Musa to grow and survive.

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