[Pimento]

I picked up some ginger root to plant in Wilko's today - a first for me, but I fancied giving it a go.

I was planning to plant it in a bucket and stick it in my (cold) greenhouse, with fleece protection if necessary.

Please does anyone have any tips or advice?

Thanks!

Pimmy.

[Kristen]

I got mine going in a Tupperware container with some vermiculite, or maybe damp kitchen paper - it was several years ago. It grew well enough in the greenhouse, but the root didn't get any bigger during the year so I didn't bother again

[Pimento]

Oh dear, Kristen - well maybe at least I might get a nice flower?

[Kristen]

Oh dear, Kristen - well maybe at least I might get a nice flower?

Yes, although not sure what the flower on edible Ginger looks like. I have several ornamental gingers and many of them are both very showy and heavily scented   I think they'd be a better bet if you are ditching them as a crop in favour of the flowers

My favourite is Hedychium gardnerianum ... some available here:
http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d133.html

[Pimento]

Lovely, Kirsten. i've thought about growin ornamental gingers before, but I don't really have anywhere to keep them where I can enjoy them.

[Kristen]

Stick em in a pot so you can bring them in the house when they are in full perfumed exuberance?

[Pimento]

Do you keep them in the greenhouse or put them outside in the summer, Kirsten? Sadly my greenhouse is too tiny and too full in summer to have room for many plants! 😀

[Kristen]

They are out in the garden. Downside, so to speak, is that they flower late in the year often at a time that frost is threatening - although varieties vary in flowering time.

It helps to keep them in, in the Spring, so they get plenty of heat and go out into the garden relatively late - which brings forward the flowering time to something less likely to get frosted-on

But that said I have several that are planted out, and left out, and they flower before the frost gets them - but that probably only means we haven;t had an early frost in recent times.

[Pimento]

You can probably get away with a bit more in Suffolk than I can here, Kirsten. They're lovely plants, though - have seen lots in the wild in SE Asia, and would love to be able to recreate that here!