Yes, they are very banana-like. You can put them out in the summer and bring them in for the winter, but they really seem to like a lot of light indoors, and I'm not sure if uprooting them from the ground is well-tolerated or not, as I've only grown them in pots. Also, some uprooted bananas tolerate winter storage in complete darkness, but I'm not sure if the Ravenala could stand it. In any event, they are neat looking plants, though they are definitely fussier than their silk look-alikes . . .

I expect they're tough to keep very long. They get pretty big, and even a 15-gal pot won't hold one for long.

shiollie,

Travellers palms (Ravenala madagascariensis) are not related to bananas (Musa) at all. They are in the same family as Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae). Bananas transplant much easier than Travellers palms, but Travellers palms grow much slower (but I wouldn't call them a slow growing plant) than banana plants so you could grow one for several years in a large pot depending on what size you started out with.

Thank you all, I think that this is much more a pot "palm" than what I wanted to do. I will do more research on the palms that I can grow here (with protection). Thanks again.

Cagary, thank you for the clarification on the families!
Still looking at the Trachys and Washingtonia's (sp)

Actually, Ravenala (Travellers' palm) is in the larger Musaceae (banana)family, as is Strelitzia reginae (Bird of Paradise), S. nicolae, and of couse, a number of species of Musa (bananas). Of all these related plants, I have had a biggest challenge keeping the Travellers' palm alive as an indoor/outdoor plant in the north. The problem is that they really require a lot of good sun (year round). I have also have had them suddenly go into decline from mealy bugs or excessive dryness. In my experience they don't take too kindly to excessively dry soil conditions. As houseplants go, the nicolae is probably the best (thus their popularity and rarely available Travellers')