It’s ginger time again!
Posted on | September 2, 2011 | 3 Comments
Hedychium densiflorum 'Sorng'
At this time of year Gingers and Dahlias are some of the most prolific showstoppers here at the Exotic Garden though gingers in particular are still a rare sight in most people’s gardens which is a shame as they are as tough as Dahlias when left in the ground over winter! I don’t say this lightly after having had one of the coldest winters in living memory, but I can say I lost none of my gingers to last winter’s big freeze, despite having had permafrost penetrating the ground to a depth of at least two inches!
I was hosting a garden tour around the Caribbean when the first big freeze arrived unexpectedly in November last year; hence I hadn’t protected my ginger clumps with a thick mulch as I don’t normally consider doing so until well into December. This autumn though I will be prepared with bales of straw at hand ready for those early frosts!
I grow four different gingers permanently outside with a couple of the more tender species brought into frost free conditions for the winter months. One of the most cold-tolerant gingers I grow is Hedychium densiflorum which has been happily growing for at least fifteen years here, with lows of -5C though last winter it went down to an arctic -11C with no mulch at all! Luckily they all survived and have grown to perfection this summer and if anything are even more prolific than ever. It is one of the easiest gingers to grow in our Norfolk gardens, growing to about 4ft tall with slightly arching stems and strap-like green leaves, topped at this time of year with dozens of densely packed 5-8ins long racemes of bright orange flowers. ‘Assam Orange’ is similar but with orange honey-scented flowers. If a flower stem is broken in half, it gives off a strong scent of camphor which for some reason always reminds me of my grandmother! Hedychium densiflorum is one of the first gingers to break through the ground in April.
A second and very welcome display of bright red berries is produced in late autumn, so they shouldn’t be cut down until first frost, when the seeds can then be collected for sowing the following spring. If you want something more dramatic ‘Stephen’ has larger more open flowers in a shade of warm apricot with burnt-orange stamens and of course that essential if not irresistible scent!
‘Sorung’ is a fairly recent introduction by the late Cornish plantsman Edward Needham. It is somewhat similar to ‘Stephen’, but with spikes of alluring salmon pink, fragrant flowers making this a very desirable ginger for the garden. I bought my ‘Sorung’ on a trip down to Cornwall about five years ago and from the original two stemmed plant I now have at least fifty flowering stems of this rather divine ginger, all flowering at around 4-5ft tall.
One of the tallest that can be grown in our gardens is Hedychium forrestii. This robust ginger easily grows from 7-8ft tall in one season, towering above your head giving a very exotic feel to the garden indeed with its rather bold glossy, mid-green leaves which can easily reach 2ft long. From late summer to early autumn, it bears loose terminal spikes up to 1ft long of pure white, slightly scented flowers with pale-yellow stamens. A large spreading clump of this hardy ginger is a joy to behold.
Although not considered as hardy as the others, Hedychium gardnerianum more commonly known as the ‘Kahili Ginger’ is one of the most spectacular gingers that can be grown in our temperate gardens. Until recently it was considered as a tropical plant, only suitable for greenhouse culture, but it can be planted out permanently if exceedingly well mulched, otherwise it should be dug up before the first frost and overwintered as an evergreen. If grown outside permanently it never grows to more than about 3½ feet tall, though if overwintered frost-free it can easily be double this height. It has thick stems with large, shiny-leathery leaves. The flower heads can be up to 1ft tall by 8ins wide consisting of massed intense yellow flowers with greatly extended orange-red stamens and of course that heady scent that accompanies such a beautiful H. gardnerianum is quite variable with some forms being more floriferous than others. If grown outside it is usually rather late breaking ground, often not until June, but it soon catches up.
Two gingers I prefer to dig up before first frost and over winter as evergreens are Hedychium greenii and Hedychium wardii. H. greenii is a highly ornamental evergreen ginger growing from 3-4ft tall with exquisite dark green leaves that are rich maroon on the underside and on the stems. The short, fairly small, cone-like terminal spikes have individual bright orange-red flowers with a large, showy lip, borne from summer to early autumn depending on the temperature though they do respond well to a hot summer. Unfortunately, this beauty is unscented. Although it is hardy down to about -8C if well mulched it can be rather slow coming into flower, whereas over wintered frost free in the green it flowers really well in August. It has the added bonus of producing small plantlets or bulbils from the inflorescence once the flowering has finished which can be collected and propagated.
Hedychium wardii is a very special ginger as it looks quite different when in flower to the others mentioned here. It produces six or more large flowers from an upright bract which, as they go over, are followed in sequence by new flowers for up to six weeks or more, unlike most gingers which produce flowers that only last a week or less. The individual blooms are very large and purest almost day glow chrome yellow and produced from a fat 6-8ins cone-like bract from early August right through September. If the bract is slightly squeezed it oozes a scented sticky soapy liquid. A large clump of this fine ginger is a joy to behold really brightening up the dullest of days.
The garden is open on Sunday so why not come along and enjoy an afternoon surrounded by exotica and of course many gingers – you might even see the odd cat lurking in the undergrowth!
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3 Responses to “It’s ginger time again!”
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September 5th, 2011 @ 7:49 am
I wish I could smell them.
September 17th, 2011 @ 12:31 pm
I love gingers too and found them to be hardier than cannas after experiencing -10 last winter.
My favourite is H greenii. I did a little video in this one and show how they can be propogated;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSih-AJvVJY&feature=player_embedded
September 17th, 2011 @ 12:56 pm
Jamie – there is nothing like fragrance of ginger flowers…
Kristofer – Yes – Gingers are much tougher than Cannas – good vid link