{"id":2910,"date":"2019-11-19T13:47:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T21:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2019-11-19T13:47:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T21:47:38","slug":"saving-ginger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/saving-ginger\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Ginger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fall<\/a>Last week I wore myself out getting all the tender potted plants into the house before the arctic weather set in.\u00a0 I have spent the past week sweeping up dead leaves as many of those same plants went to pieces over the shock of moving from the bright outdoor light into the best-that-I-can-do light indoors.\u00a0 Of course they dominate the window ledges and bright spots and most have some supplemental light, but all of that heroic effort still does not add up to the sunshine in which they all basked until last week.\u00a0 The shock is normal and most will recover nicely, but I still apologize to them every day as I apply the watering can.<\/p>\n

The plant that appears to be suffering the most dramatically is the ornamental ginger or Hedychium.\u00a0 Its large, erect leaves were mostly green eight days ago.\u00a0 Now they are ninety percent brown and I am properly horrified.<\/p>\n

Ornamental ginger or ginger lily is a genus that contains about fifty species, native to India, the Himalayas and China, according to English plantsmen, Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix.\u00a0 It is part of the large Zingerberaceae or ginger family, which also includes culinary ginger.\u00a0 Some of the commercially available plants are varieties of Hedychium coronaria, also known as the \u201cbutterfly ginger plant\u201d, for its white, butterfly-like individual flowers.\u00a0 Butterfly ginger also has a fragrance said to resemble that of honeysuckle.\u00a0 Many other available Hedychium varieties are hybrids, notable for the extremely fragrant, eight to twelve-inch flowerheads that sit atop the tall stalks.\u00a0 Blooming in late summer, our particular specimen had dark rose-colored flowers, but other varieties may feature blooms in all colors except true blue.\u00a0 I think the yellow and peach varieties, like \u2018Elizabeth\u2019, are especially pretty.<\/p>\n

The ginger lily first arrived in Europe in 1819 and caught on.\u00a0 Rich Victorians used the large, decorative plants in their new conservatories.\u00a0 Eventually a combination of factors\u2014the cost of heating conservatories, the tenderness of plants grown outdoors, the fickle plant fashion cycle\u2014conspired to diminish the popularity of the ginger lily.<\/p>\n

Most ornamental plants are either wildly popular, moderately popular, completely out of fashion, or about to be rediscovered with great fanfare.\u00a0 According to the always reliable and authoritative Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, ginger lily was rediscovered in 1965, by Tony Schilling, a botanist working for the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Kew Gardens.\u00a0 Since then, hybridizers have been hard at work, and now the genus is wildly popular, with over 100 cultivated varieties or cultivars available to the public.<\/p>\n

In many places\u2014including cold winter ones–tropical plants, with their big, bold leaves and showy flowers are experiencing a real renaissance.\u00a0 Wealthy people in northern latitudes either overwinter ginger lilies under glass or treat them as annuals, along with tropical fellow travelers including elephant ears, banana trees and cannas.\u00a0 Non-wealthy people like me heft up the large containers and lug them indoors, or lift the rhizomes and store them, cool and dry, in containers full of sphagnum moss.<\/p>\n

When I look at the browned leaves of my ginger lily, I feel a gnawing sense of failure.\u00a0 However, the bout of psychological self-flagellation that I am about to inflict on myself may be premature.\u00a0 Ginger lilies are rhizomatous perennials.\u00a0 In their native habitats, they normally experience a dormancy period in winter.\u00a0 Of course, containerized plants that are kept at 65 degrees Fahrenheit or above are supposed to be evergreen.\u00a0 I am hoping that my plant has either entered dormancy, or will sprout some new green leaves when it gets over the agony of readjustment to indoor conditions.\u00a0 For the moment, I will trim back the withered leaves, water appropriately and bide my time.\u00a0 Sometimes a little inertia on the gardener\u2019s part does wonders for plants.<\/p>\n

If you have a yen for a ginger lily and a nice, warm, well-lit place to raise it, check out Logees at 141 North Street, Danielson, CT 06239; (860) 774-8038. www.logees.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free print catalog.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I wore myself out getting all the tender potted plants into the house before the arctic weather set in.\u00a0 I have spent the past week sweeping up dead leaves as many of those same plants went to pieces over the shock of moving from the bright outdoor light into the best-that-I-can-do light indoors.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5],"tags":[2204,2203,2202,492,2201,499],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-ginger-family","tag-ginger-lily","tag-hedychium","tag-houseplants","tag-overwintering-plants","tag-tropical-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2912,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}