When my aunt moved into a retirement home, the lady who lived in her cottage previously had left a lot of plants. One was in a plastic 2 gallon pot and rather root bound and terribly neglected. My aunt didn't want it because it was straggly and ugly. I took it and kept it in the pot over the winter and in the spring put the pot outside and just watered it. By May, the plant was growing and literally split the pot it was in. I was amazed! So I dug a hole in the back yard in an inconspicuous place and planted it .. it was ugly and I still had no idea what it was. It went bananas and grew like mad. One evening, in late Summer, I was doing my evening walkabout and my nose detected a heavenly scent. I followed my nose and discovered the ugly plant was blooming with a most beautiful, almost iridescent white flower. I was stunned. What I had was Butterfly Ginger. Needless to say I was hooked. Thus my introduction to gingers.
About a month ago I saw a picture of the flowers of Alpinia zerumbet and made a trade of a rhizome. I promptly potted it up and it is now sitting in my greenhouse growing. Just this evening I checked the plant files to see where to put it and was somewhat dismayed to see it's not listed as hardy in Zone 8b .. but I did see a notation by someone in 8b that indicated it was. I also noted that it only flowers on old growth. So am I correct in assuming that if it does die back every year and survives the winter it will never bloom? It will get way to big to keep in a pot and overwinter in my greenhouse. Bummer.
So if that is the case (I really don't want just foliage) I'd like to trade it for some peach ginger, but I hope I'm wrong with the conclusions I have come to after reading about it.
Xeramtheum
This message was edited Apr 19, 2006 9:44 PM
