Costus Species, Red Cigar, Spiral Ginger

I received my plant from a friend 2 years ago and this year I found its likes and it bloomed 3 foot stems with 4 to 6 inch long pods. Mi...Read Morene has small white crepe type blooms that open each day and die tomorrow but the Deep Magenta Purple of the flower base is beautiful and it has been in bloom since Middle of June One stalk now has stopped blooming and is full of seeds and I sure wish I knew how to try to grow them. The bottom of the plant is in a pot but hidden with another plant but the blooms sought the sun and love it.

I grew spiral pinecone ginger for almost 9 years in my yard in St. Petersburg, Florida, zone 9b. This is a quite stunning looking plant,...Read More even when not in bloom. They had bright orange small "pinecones" and smooth, glossy leaves. They grew in a mostly sunny spot along with dwarf Brazilian bananas, which grew to 15 feet, papayas and various colored cannas, so this was a very tropical looking bed. Everything but the papayas survinved an early March, 18 F degree freeze one winter.

This bed was mulched very heavily with chipped up compost given away free by the city, and after years of adding this mulch the dirt in this bed was a deep black color instead of a white sand. I can't remember when my pinecones bloomed, but they bloomed pretty profusely, and the plants grew to about five feet tall. They were in a slightly raised bed with lots of water from a downspout off of the roof. Once established they spread rapidly, so eventually I had lots of offsets to dig up and give away to friends.

I acquired my original plant as a "pass-a-long" at an orgnic garden club meeting--everyone brought a plant and we charged a dollar apiece for a ticket, and as the tickets were drawn out of a bowl and read off, the winners got to choose a plant to take home until the plants were all gone. I acquired quite a few unusual plants in this way, and I think a regular "plant raffle" is a good way to assure attendance at garden type club meetings.