Email
Print
Add a little spice to your life and yard with ginger
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
White ginger is a tropical-looking plant that grows well in North Carolina.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 4, 2008
White ginger, Hedychium coronarium, is one of the classic floral scents. You can file it away in the olfactory memory along with the likes of lilac, lily of the valley, rose and daphne.
This is one of those tropical-looking plants that it seems would be impossible to encounter in the temperate zone. It should be framed by waterfalls and palm trees, but, in fact, it is blooming now above some tattered looking asters and some newly planted lettuce and cabbage.
Close your eyes and sniff, however, and you are transported beyond the plebian temperate-zone vegetables to a place where the surf crashes on volcanic sand.
Many of the hardy, ornamental gingers do incredibly well in our climate, although they originate in such places as Nepal, India, China and throughout the Himalayas. Collectively, they are often referred to as butterfly flower because their sweeping petals and prominent stamens are reminiscent of butterfly wings and antennae.
They are also called ginger lilies and garland lilies. A dissection of the botanical name Hedychium translates to sweet (hedys) snow (chion), a reference to white ginger. Coronarium means "used in garlands."
Growing ginger in N.C.
The flowers of white ginger have also been used in leis in Hawaii. They are held in spikes atop plants that superficially resemble corn plants and are nearly as tall. There are species and cultivars with more colorful and even more prominent flowers, but they cannot rival the scent of the white ginger, a heavenly gardenia and honeysuckle combination that is simply among the best of floral scents.
These gingers grow from rhizomes, creeping surface-oriented roots very much like those of culinary ginger (Zingiber officinale). My years of growing Hedychium in the piedmont of North Carolina have shown them to be hardy to our winter cold and healthy in our gardens where they generally increase rapidly.
They are a little slow to wake up in the spring, and it is a good idea to mark their spot in the flower border. Expect growth to be at least 5 feet. A spot that receives full sun is best for these late bloomers. Without a generous baking, the flowers may never have a chance to form before frost. Soil should be moist and rich for best performance, but the most important ingredient is full sun. You also will want to put the plant where it can comfortably meet the nose every time you step into the autumn garden.
Once you have a start of white ginger, you will find that annually it is always on the increase. In its second year, the plant will really begin to spread out, and there will be plenty to share with friends. Simply plunge a sharp spade into the rhizome and lift a piece off. This is best attempted in the spring.
There are a few similar characters in the ginger family. Alpinia, from Asia, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand contains the beautiful shell ginger that can reach 12 feet and dangle foot-long clusters of glossy shell-pink buds. A variegated selection has leaves etched in pencil-fine stripes of yellow.
Costus, the spiral ginger, is an elegant plant whose cane of leaves is arranged in a scythe-like spire. The white flowers have the crumpled appearance of crepe paper, much like some poppy petals. They emerge from pine-cone-shaped bracts.
I remember seeing them at the Audubon house in the Florida Keys where they were massed in the landscape. You looked over a porch rail down on to them, their whip shapes forming impressive patterns. We wouldn't get away with that here though; both Alpinia and Costus, alas, are tender in our climate. Unlike hedychium, these two don't have a long enough season to form flowers here, so the best you can do is cart them in and out for the summer and hope for the best, but flowers on these will be hard to come by.
Then there is Curcuma, a group of generally smaller gingers that includes Curcuma longa, the source of the spice turmeric, used in curry powders. All of these are true tropicals, and will not succeed outside here the way white ginger does. Culinary ginger can be raised indoors in a pot. You can use grocery-store ginger root for this. Choose fat, firm roots with prominent bud ends and soak them in a bowl of water overnight. Plant in a pot with the root just below the surface and place it in indirect sun. It is best to wait about a year before harvesting the newly grown root.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@ws
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
