All of my Gingers are loving all the rain we are getting .. I took this picture this morning of the Dancing Ladies Gingers, Globba and the Siam Tulip Gingers, Curcuma.

Elaine, your White Dragon is in between the yellow and purple globba and blooming! Send me your address and let me mail it off to you!

I've uploaded a 20meg picture if you'd like to get closer .. here is the link:

http://www.xeramtheum.com/Ging...

Stunning

My 'White Butterfly" gingers are loaded with large flower heads, but so far no flowers. The "Shampoo" gingers look great but no "cones" have appeared yet.

Thanks! My Gingers are always a special treat! When we have a lot of rain as we have had this Summer, they start blooming about mid July and when we don't have a lot of rain it's more like late August. My Hedychium, Butterfly and Bottlebrush Gingers are blooming too! Though not as fragrant as the White Butterfly they also have a wonderful delicate scent.

The pictures below are all Hedychiums - Daniel Weeks, Gold Flame and a Bottle Brush - Hedychium coccineum.

All beautiful gingers. My 'White Butterfly' plants are 6-7' tall, making it easier for the many hummingbirds to get at them, as well as the luna moths in the fall.

What a lovely photo of the gingers! They look so healthy; what's your secret to keeping them this way?

Your collection is beautiful. Do you grow any of them in the ground? I know that the heydichiums are hardy in our zone. My white butterfly is in the ground and so is another NOID tall one with pale yellow blooms. I dug up the orange bottlebrush because it was getting too much sun, but haven't replanted it. I overwintered those as well as my curcuma in the garage, last year. I just planted the curcuma, because it was about the burst the pot it was it.

Gorgeous blooms, X!

Love all the gingers! I have some gingers that need to be moved. They are multiplying but not blooming. And I know they are peach, the blooming kind.
I just staked my White Butterfly Gingers up today. We had some rains (not nearly enough!) but enough to pound the heck out of them. They needed a bit of a boost. I saw some budding but usually we don't bloom til early fall around here. They do not get full sun like they like to grow tall and showy but I manage to get them to bloom some how?

I'm beginning to find out that full sun is a bit too much for these plants. We''ve been getting plenty of rain lately, but the leaves are folded during the day. I think the need some shade during the hottest part of the day. I don't have a lot of shady areas. Oh well I'll have to think of something soon.

I have all of my Hedychiums in the ground along with the Curcuma Hidden Gingers and Spiral Ginger, Costus pictus which gets full blazing hot sun from sun up til about 4 in the afternoon. The Hedychiums and Hidden gingers are solid zone 8 hardy .. I'm too chicken to risk putting my "specials" in the ground. I don't have a recent picture of the "Ginger Bed" but I'll take one tomorrow. I finally for the first time in like 4 years dug up the whole bed thinned out and replanted in late Winter of this year.

I find that the more water in the Spring and early Summer they get the faster they grow and sooner they bloom. I also throw time release fertilizer on top of the soil as well.

Here is the "key" to the Ginger Bed.

Did you say spiral ginger can be wintered in the ground? I overwintered mine under lights last winter, but it's gotten too big. It still hasn't bloomed. I will be putting that one in the ground soon also as soon as it cools down.

I know the Costus pictus is a solid Zone 8 hardy .. at least for me - doesn't bloom every year though. I have another Spiral ginger, Cheilocostus speciosus 'Foster Variegated' which is suppose to also be Zone 8 hardy but I got it about 16 months ago as a rooted cutting (had no idea you could root ginger cuttings) and I've been keeping it in a pot .. it actually started making rhizomes this year so I'll probably be putting it in the ground next year.

An interesting thing about that rooted Costus .. the leaves/stems for the first year I had it were totally deformed - no spiral and crinkled up leaves .. I was about to write it off this Spring when new growth started coming up normal! I'm thinking that the growth of the rhizomes instead of just roots finally straightened it out so to speak.

I recently read somewhere that the cuttings could be rooted. I was thinking about taking cuttings before the frost hits it. That's another thing, we do get more frost and colder temps here in Orangeburg, than you do in Summerville.

The last two Winters here have been exceedingly warm with exceptionally wet Springs and this past January we had temps in the mid 70's for two weeks which really messed things up .. especially in the greenhouse since the soil in the containers actually rose by as much as 5 degrees in some cases .. everything started waking up! It even raised the ground temperature by 2 degrees in the areas with full sun and things started waking up in the beds .. I was terrified. Thankfully after that warm up we didn't have any super cold in the 20's for hours nights but cold enough to lower the ground temperature back to where it should be which put everything 'back to sleep' again.

The nice thing about finding out you can root gingers is that eventually they will make rhizomes.

I have lots of Hedychium 'Dr Moy' and 'Butterfly' blooming away, and a new one to me Hedychium greenii. It seems to be confused, and is making baby plants on the flower heads.




Several different costus incl. a new white one Costus speciosa that bloomed for the first time from a mystery cutting. The friend that gave me the next pic calls it Rainbow Costus.Some leaves are super-variegated with cream and pink stripes, and some are quite plain dark green with red reverses. Flowers are yellow/red striped pipes.


Love these white Curcuma with the little purple flowers in the bracts. Last is my favorite ground cover Kaempferia or Peacock Ginger

Nice! I have the variegated Costus speciosa - as I mentioned above got it as a rooted cutting .. I don't expect it to bloom since I'm really more interested in being fruitful and the rhizomes multiplying this summer .. maybe next summer - I'll give it one more winter in the greenhouse then its on its own! You & I have a lot of gingers in common - hoping my greenii blooms .. I'll let you know if it starts making babies on the top (could they be bulbils?). I love your Rainbow Costus and I also have the Kaempferia - actually, aren't you the one who gave it to me? Also hoping the H ellipticum decides to bloom this year.

Forgot to show Zingiber Zerumbet, the Pinecone ginger blooming its cute little flowers. The 'cones' will turn red after the flowers finish. I don't think we've traded any plants yet, Anne.

That's so pretty! I really like the green cone - does the flower have a fragrance?

Nope, but if you gently squeeze the cone you get a handful of gingery smelling lotion. I slap it on my ankles as mosquito repellent.