Curcuma zedoaria?

I think.. It showed up where I don't recall planting any gingers as it is near the creek bed and in my carnivore area.

That is pretty...Love the color of the flower...

Curcuma sp. Raspberry. this one will bloom from ground like a spring bloomer and later from plant as is typical with summer blooming curcumas. Only a few do this, otherwise they are one or the other. Zedoaria is a spring bloomer only.

Curcuma Raspberry bloom in summer
Liz

Liz.. so you are telling me that this is C. raspberry and not zedoaria?

Yes, ma'am, you have Curcuma Raspberry.
Zedoaria bloomed a couple of monthes ago and the inflorescence is not the same color as raspberry, the raspberry inlforsescence from the ground isn't as large as the one it will send up from the plant in about another month. The first picture I sent is Zedoaria and the second is Raspberry in the summer.
This picture is of one of my Raspberries in the spring, before the foliage and from the rhozhome in the ground.
Liz

Okay.. good deal. Thank you. I will go and tag the little buggar right now!

You are quite welcome ma'am. If you'd like I can send you my constant work in progress (AOL photo album). Just email me at leneobrien@aol.com or bloomerliz on ebay. I am still putting photos in the album and naming and getting rid of a few fuzzies but, there are currently over 300 pictures in it.
This picture is Curcuma Cordata, I love it!
Liz

Liz is right that it is not Curcuma zedoaria - or at least does not appear to be from that photo. But I am not sure how it can be identified as Curcuma 'Raspberry' since there are dozens of very similar looking Curcumas - especially when you consider all the recent hybrids that have been made from the spring blooming Curcumas to produce two-season bloomers. Another of Tom Wood's hybrids that does this is the one he calls 'Purple Gusher'.

Dave Skinner
www.gingersrus.com

Hi Dave...
This is an old one. I dug it up from my old garden when I lived in Green Cove Springs.. I just don't recall planting it in this new garden where it is now though. *sigh* senior moment

While I realize Tom probably has several hybrids that do that, in the trade you don't see them readily available and Raspberry is in tissue culture and very readily available and I've seen no other like it out on the market. We are up to around 215 varities of gingers know and I've only had 3 bloom both ways, so I figured what might be more available to the average person. No other Curcuma we have has an inflorescence even remotley close to Raspberry, it's so striking, colorful and huge summer inflorsence. I haven't been to Tom's for a while, Purple Gusher was one of his newer releases the last time I was out, but haven't seen anyone else selling it.
Liz

You may be right, it has the narrow coma bracts which distinguishes it from many of them. I think these must be hybrids of Curcuma yunnanensis - a summer bloomer - which would give it the narrow bracts and summer flowering character. I checked on the web and see that Curcuma 'Raspberry' has been released by Agristarts. I found another one on the GardenWeb formum at http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/gardgal/msg1020275514767.jpg that someone is calling 'Raspberry Parfait'. They have a photo at that link. Does that look to you like the same one? I really can't tell with some, it's like the pink Hedychium hybrids - there are so many similar looking ones I have difficulty telling which is which. And now that the flood gates have opened up with all the Thai imports - about a gazillion different names for Curcuma alismatifoliia forms - it is pretty much hopeless.

Too bad the hybrid registry at Singapore Botanic Gardens has never really caught on.

Dave Skinner
www.gingersrus.com

LOL.. hey Dave, it gets so crazy. I'll look at the link, it's probably the same, you know how everyone likes to 'name' something'. Can anyone access the Singapore registry? You'd think since that's where so many are fromthat would be the place to check?
Liz :)

As far as I know, it never really got going. The location in Singapore has nothing to do with it, they were just trying to fulfill a need. This is something that is sorely needed since so many names have been tossed around and there is no official reference you can go to to find a description of ginger hybrids, like there is with orchids and other plants that are frequently bred.

They are listed by the International Society for Horticultural Science at http://www.ishs.org/icra/ as the official registry for Hedychium and Curcuma hybrids. I know they contacted Tom Wood, but he decided he did not want to disclose the parent plants of his hybrids. I told John Banta about it last year and he inquired with them about registering his Kaempferia hybrids, but I have not heard anything about the outcome. The Fourth Symposium on Zingiberceae was held there at Singapore Botanica Gardens just two weeks ago, and there might have been some progress, but I did not attend this time.

Dave Skinner
www.gingersrus.com

yeah!!!! now I have a name for mine too. I have it blooming in a little pot