Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Plants and Gardens #120, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Ben, you can grow culinary ginger from the rhizomes you buy at the grocery store, providing they're fresh. Look for one with a pink bud.

Must admit I've done it before, and let the plant disappear because it's just not as pretty as the other gingers I'm growing. It's leggy and flops over for me. The fresh rhizomes don't taste any different from the ones you get at the store either. I like the hedychiums with the lovely fragrant flowers, myself.

I have 3 kinds of hedychiums, 3 different spiral gingers, plus Alpinia, (the variegated shell ginger that's a landscape staple here) one that's related called Pinstripe ginger, and the little Peacock ginger. Can't see why you shouldn't try overwintering any of them with a deep mulch. As long as the rhizomes don't freeze they are very vigorous. Except the little one, it's a diva.