Bamboo Glade

for hardy bamboos, gingers and bananas

• Home
• Bamboos
• Gingers
• Bananas
• Scented plants
• Sales
• Contact Us
• Events
• A walk in the glade
• Another stroll
• Jim Glazzard

• LINKS
• Metallic Garden
• Lynne Glazzard

Gingers - especially hedychiums

Apart from an occasional hardy member of the zingiber genus, the gingers we grow - and sell - are hedychiums, sometimes referred to as ginger lilies. They range in hardiness from frost hardy to tender, but whether planted out or kept in pots and protected from frost, they enrich the garden with their tropical foliage, spectacular flowers and in many cases a ravishing perfume.

Hedychiums are generally plants of the forest edge, and are happy in some shade. even in our cool climate. Fast growing, so feed and water generously in the growing season.

Propagate by dividing rhizomes in early spring. The rapidly expanding rhizomes can distort or split pots. Some varieties need to reach a root size big enough to fill a 15 or 30 litre pot before flowering. Others flower happily at less than 15 litres.

Some, like H. 'Elizabeth', take a year or two to settle down after disturbance. But most should eventually reward you with a breathtaking tropical floral display.

Hedychiums hybridise remarkably easily, and although this creates some exciting variations, it can also make individual plants difficult to identify with absolute certainty. We apologise in advance if any should prove to be wrongly attributed. Don't hesitate to let us know if you disagree with our labeling. Below are some of the plants we grow and propagate from. The hardiest have H after the name, the most scented have the letter S (though many more have a pleasant perfume).

In the gloomy summer of 2008, the Hedychiums at Bamboo Glade were very late coming into flower, the first, h. yunnanense, not appearing till early August, followed by h. spicatum, h. 'Assam Orange', h. forestii, h. 'Tara' and h. 'Stephen'. By the start of September none of the others in this rather cold northern garden show signs of flowering, but many of them, after division, are small plants.