My son and his wife brought back a slip to grow of an Hi white ginger plant. It is in a 4" pot and about 16" tall. I live in Mass. zone 5. How do I care for it and what do I do, plant it outside or in the fall bring it in and how do I care for it in the winter months? I would appreciate any help. Thanks
HI White ginger plant
Aloha barnie,
Sorry that I can't give you any help with over wintering your ginger, it's a problem that we don't have to cope with here! I would imagine that they would have to be brought inside for your winter, I am sure that they couldn't take Mass winters...Have you tried the ginger forum - they probably can give you great advice, or perhaps someone else here will be able to help, we have some expert growers of tropicals who also live in cold climates.
Hope you pop in to TZG again and let us know how you do with your ginger.
The plant is Hedychium coronarium.
The plant must be indoors for the winter, you are too far North to put it outside permanently. The plant can handle a frost, but it won't like it.
Put it in at least a five gallon pot (15g would be better) water it with a balanced fertilizer such as Miracle-Grow. You should get good results if you apply the fertilizer at half strength and use it every time you water.
The rhizomes should be no more than an inch under the soil. The plant loves an organic mulch.
Hi Barnie....afraid I can't give you much encouragement. I grew (or tried to grow) one(some) in Seattle years ago and while I had wonderful foliage...there simply weren't enough daylight hours over the whole year to produce flowers. The swings in daylight were too great...... Good luck.
Hi! I have one of these and I live in Illinois. You need a very very big pot because mine is outgrowing the pot now. I got mine from a friend who brought back bulbs from Hawaii. It took a couple years but it did bloom in the winter inside. The smell is wonderful. Just keep it in a sunny spot in the winter.
Hedychiums grow up to 4,000 ft. in Hawai'i where there are mild frosts every few years; no snow, the temperature reaches at least 60 degrees F on the coldest days of the year.
I think that Woodward gets colder than that.
Bring them inside in late fall; set them out in early spring.
Well. I will get out my shovel. Darn. I am trying to plant some cold hardy tropicals. Actually, I purchased these gingers on ebay. Came as some small woody looking thing with claws coming out of it. There were no instructions as to how to plant. I had to assume the 3 claws coming out of each woody looking thing was its roots, so I planted them with the "claws" facing downward. I dug a small hole and just covered them with a little soil. Only one has come up. It is about an inch tall now. I am excited I got one at all. I also planted some yellow ginger seed. So far, none of them have come up. I am trying to keep the soil moist. I am hoping I will see something eventually. I also planted some cold hardy orchid ginger. Those have not come up yet, but the instructions on them did say it could take 3 months for them to come up. I think, if they do come up just before frost, I will dig them up this fall and grow them inside. Then next year they should be larger. I leave them in the ground then.
The Chinese Garden in Portland Oregon has the yellow ginger growing in their garden. It is sheltered by a brickwall, cut down (or dies down) every fall and it is heavily mulched. I don't know the zone of Portland...but it gets darn cold there!!!
Oh yeah. Oregan would get colder than Oklahoma I should think. They do get a lot more snow. If some of my seeds ever come up, maybe I will leave one out over winter and mulch it to see what happens. I just love the foliage of tropical plants, but it is terribly hard finding some that are cold hardy. I am finding several that are from china that have beautiful foliage.
Hi....I brought a white ginger root back from Hawaii a few years ago, planted it in a small pot with good soil and it took a long time, but finally grew. I have it in my office (very bright light) and it has gone wild....but of course, has not bloomed yet. I live in Sandpoint, Idaho, which gets really cold in winter, so this little beauty has always been an indoor plant. I appreciate the information about putting it in a larger pot and we'll just see how it does. Even if it doesn't bloom, I just love the foliage. Glad to have found this site. Mahalo!