how to make a ginger bloom

Hello!
I was given my first ginger this spring. It looked awful. It had 2 or 3 little stalks that were about 4 or 5 inches long. I planted in a moist area and it just started growing like crazy. It is now about 15 to 20 stalks and they are about 2 and a half feet tall. I love the look of it and am going to have to over winter inside, but why has it not bloomed? any advice would be great.

THANKS!
George

I grow mine in filtered shade,moist, well drained, rich soil. In the spring I feed with a good fertilizer and again about midsummer. If your ginger rhizomes were first year plants, they should bloom next year.

I had the same concerns with mine but the 2nd year it did bloom. Only thing is it's only bloomed once so I wondered, does it bloom more than once with every year that I have it? Can I expect it to bloom 2 times next year? Sometimes plants make me think too much and "it hurts" ........ (LOL)

This ginger has been around for years and has never bloomed. I have a great place for it and it is really my friends ginger. He had tried pots and other methods, but still no blooms. Since moving it here it looks better than it ever has(its moist semi-shady) He wants some of it back, but i get to keep half, which is a huge piece. I have to over winter it indoors. How should i handle this? Let it go dormant or keep it growing? I love this plant and want it to do well.

George
p.s. Anaid your ginger is beautiful!

I've noticed that the few I had in pots got pretty potbound before they bloomed. Come to think of it they were in their second or third yr too. So not sure which worked lol. Pretty photos.

To me it looks like a hedychium. Do hedychiums grow that far? Thought zone 7 is the limits. Anyway, most transplants bloom the following year, given the right conditions as Cannagirl says. I ever had some that took 5 years to produce buds..too much shade! (No online smarts at that time)
Anaid, gingers bloom once per stalk. More stalks you have, the more buds hence the more extended your blooming period until cold weather steps in.
Good luck!

Come to think about it mine is pot bound so maybe that's the answer. This will probably die down for the winter right? I mean the stalks; I should dig up the rizomes and cut them so I will have more next year, right? C'mon guys help me out here.

Hey Guys; Five years ago I planted a small clump of Shell Ginger in my yard.Stems were about 3 ft tall.Stems grew to about 8 ft and increased in number to over 30.In the spring this year I dug in about 3-4 cups of Azomite around the plant and got flowers on 9 or 10 of the stems.They get 3-4 hours of sun a day.The only thing I don't know is will the stems that bloomed this year bloom again in the future or is it once per stem-ever?It doesn't really matter as this stuff spreads like bamboo.-

George,
In your zone, I would grow Hedychiums in full sun and feed them. I feed mine in late spring with a granular fertilizer that feeds for 90 days.

If grown in full sun, I also suspect that yours would grow much taller. To encourage blooms, they need a longer growing season, and regular watering and feeding.

My Hedychiums here in Knoxville range from 6 ft. to 7 ft. tall.

Some hope there Nathalyn for gf that lives in Lebanon, Tn.! I had given some hedychium rhizomes to her, and all died!! All grown in full sun too, but she did admit that she only mulched them about 3 inches! So we guessed that wasn't enough protection for your much colder winter. Yes George please do use specially formulated food for gingers.
Anaid, I have never divided potted rhizomes. Too afraid that I might damage them!I transplant the whole thing. Just wanted to ensure that they're healthy inground before I do any dividing.

Love the pictures Anaid & George.

Nobody's got an answer for what I should do w/it over the winter?

Anaid: You can divide the rizomes to produce more plants; but I would wait for spring. Once the plant is divided it may take a year or two the plants to bloom. Also, you can cut back the stalks once they bloom or start to turn brown.

I would dig some of them up as soon as they go dormant and dry them out. Then I would plant them in pots in the house near a window that gets lots of sun. Then plant them out as soon as there is no danger of frost. This will extend their growing season. If the roots are healthy there is no reason for them to not to bloom. Gingers like a loose rich soil and make sure they are not planted to deep.
This Candy Cane was really small and still bloomed.

kenboy
www.vonrussellfarm.com

i also live in zone 8 and was hoping to leave my ginger outdoors for the winter--can it make it or do i have to take it in?

Hello!~
When you said let them dry out and put by a sunny window, do you give them any water or wait until early in the spring and start watering them so they wake up and extend their growing season so they can be transplanted outdoors when danger of frost is over? I am also getting a butterfly ginger in a trade, would I treat it the same? I am lost here with starting to grow ginger and want them to do well. I loved how they looked in the garden.
ANY advise would be welcomed!
THANKS!
George

DLDaddy go to Winterizing questions thread.

Morehead Kentucky.... I use to live there! I went to Clearfield Elementary school and Rowen County High school... what a small world!

Hello! mimianvy
It is a small world! My son is attending Rowen county high right now. I have local friends who went there also. Their last names are Keeton and Stacey. I moved here in "85" to go to college and loved it here and stayed.
George

This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 9:46 AM

Hello George,

I attended that school back in the mid 70's as a freshman. I still have alot of family in Clearfield. They are the Stewart's, Crager's, and the Cloyd's. Infact we have a pretty good sized family cemetary (Stewart's cemetary) in Clearfield.

Haven't been back for almost 20 years but there use to be a house next to the cemetary that is suppose to be haunted. I use to sit in the swing with my dear uncle and he use to tell me about the hauntings and other stories of years gone by. I sure miss that.

Thank you for bring back fond memories!

Mimi

Hello! mimianvy
This house does not happen to be beside the church in Clearfield? with the cemetery behind it? We also talk about and have had friends live in a haunted house in clearfield. That would be to weird.
George

I'm not sure if there is a church there now, but as I remember, the cemetary was pretty far back from the road and the haunted house was closer to the road.

My uncle use to tell me about how the home owners would hear things like dry rice/beans being dumped to the floor, large lump of coal being moved around down in the basement and temperature changes that would just bring chills to the spine. Some tenants use to get so scared that they would run out of that house and never return. Maybe that is the house that your friends lived in and is being visited by my deceased family!!! :0

They are old time Clearfield residents, probably was there from the beginning. Barndollars are also related to us. My step-brother (who is much older than me, LOL) is a graduate from Morehead University I believe back in the 60's.

Mimi

Hello! Mimi
This is kinda freaky. They also talked about the basement having strange noises, banging and sounds like large items being scraped on the floor. This house is close to the road with the cemetery way behind it. They also talked about strange images in the yard and how they would feel like a "cool breeze"pass by them in the house. They did not stay there long either. Who's to say, somethings just can not be explained.
George

When I lived in Clearfield that whole area around the haunted house and the cemetary use to be farm land. Around halloween they used that land to plant rolls and rolls of corn (like the movie, Children of the Corn!) and pumpkins. My cousins (who were well known in Clearfield as trouble makers, kind of boys parents would warn their daughters not to socialize with) and I would carry pumpkins to the top of the road and when we see a cars' head light, we would roll the pumpkin toward the car and run into the corn field so that we watch what the cars would do.

Gee... the things we use to do as kids, we would be incarcerated for things like that now!!

Would love to go back and see how that place have changed. Maybe for the next family reunion...which by the way is held at the cemetary every year! LOL

If interested, look us Stewarts Cemetary in Clearfield. My step-brother has done a wonderful job with the website and writes alot about the history of Morehead and Clearfield.

Mimi

zebraman; Each stem of Shell Ginger will bloom only once. You can cut them back after they bloom or if they start getting "ratty" looking.

A co-worker gave me some gingers a few years ago. I planted them where they received some morning sun but in shade the rest of the day. The next year, they bloomed beautifully and multiplied rapidly, so I divided them. In their new spots, some got the same amount of sun as before and some a little less. Not one of them bloomed. They are all coming up now. Should I move them where they will get more sun or leave them for another year and see what happens? Thanks!

Lussah, if you have the patience of Job, I'll leave them for another year. Some of mine that were transplanted 'pouted' too!

Welcome to DG Lussah.

This message was edited Mar 30, 2008 5:14 PM