How did it go?

You can wait till you get the first light frost and either cut them back to about six inches and mulch heavily with at least 6-12 inches of material/dig up and pot up to grow on inside over the winter and re-plant in the spring/dig up and place whole plant in a cold, but not freezing shed/garage/basement/crawl space and bring back out about Feb. and pot up till re-growth starts and then re-plant in the ground/cut off all leaves, build a fenced enclosure around stalk and fill to the top with leaves or other insulating material and wrap fence in plastic or a tarp. Place a bucket on top to keep water out of the top of the banana. Un-cover when it begins to warm up in your area. (do not do this below TN as you may fry your plants on warm, sunny days. Leave the plastic off. There...take your pick! ;-)

I didn't realize it was perennial as far north as South Carolina! :-) Thought it was a much more tropical thing. As far as I know, it won't survive the winter outdoors here. At least mine haven't, but I've always planted them in containers. I bought 2 similar plants last Saturday at the Arlington Farmer's Market. Maybe I should plant one in the ground this year, mulch it heavily over the winter and see what happens....

Chamaerops humils, Mediterranean Fan Palm will stay low and likes good drainage. Dierama (Angel's Fishing pole) is amazing and drought tolerant. Grevillea bloom all winter, attract hummingbirds and are evergreen. Pineapple guava is a good one. There are several short phormiums available. Agapanthus is good. Castor bean 'carmencita red' is an annual that is tops for tropicale. Callistemon sieberi (Bottlebrush) is good. Large assortment of hebes. Low bamboos like Shibatea kumasaca or Sasa Veitchii. How about a carnivorous plant bog which can be a smallish lined hole filled with peatmoss and sand mix. Be sure to go to Jungle Fever Exotics in Pt. Defiance Tacoma in spring. That's a great resource. Here is a link that might be useful: Sasa Veitchii