Tropicals & Tender Perennials: 2 questions for you experts, 0 by birdlady_liz

birdlady_liz wrote:
Deb,
Yes ma'am, your Curcuma alismatifolia blooms from the plant and your Curcuma zedoaria blooms from the ground in the spring before the foliage appears. Alismatifolia will probably do better for you than it does for us in central Florida. They don't seem to like it here, don't usually bloom again after the first year and sometime the plant just dwindles away and never returns. Your zedoaria is a nice strong growing Curcuma. I've noticed many of the spring blooming Curcumas seem to like more sun and are very cold hardy, some have been grown in the ground as far north as zone 7, and even 6b. Tropicanna is 1000% correct, never trust Lowes plant tags. Really most plant tags are too generic as far as sun/shade and the rest of the information should be taken with a grain of salt.
I have never seen an ugly ginger so, I can't understand the foliage thing...lol
You can grow so many gingers where you are, I am more zone 8b here than I am 9a and I have over 200 varieties. I love my Zingiber zerumbet, I am always 'milking' the inflorescence and putting the glycerine type juice on my skin, it's wonderful.
Sorry, didn't mean to go on for so long, it's been a while since I stopped work and visited here for some fun time :)
Liz