I didn't realize that banana trees could grow in NE. This tree was doing quite nicely at the Middlebury I-91 rest area, near the I-691 junction, on Sunday, October 5th, 2008. Yeah, there is a bit of yellowing and brown on the leaevs, but then this is Autumn in New England, and not the "endless summer" of the Bahamas. It is solidly planted in the ground, in not in a pot which could be moved indoors for the long winter... Maybe a new one gets planted each year.

Update:

I have been through this rest stop several times since then, what they do in the fall is to cut the banana tree off to a stump, and then place an inverted plastic garbage can, stuffed with insulating leaves over it, then remove it in the spring. THere are two of these trees, located about 50 yards apart.