I’ve updated the list of South Florida plant sales. Fairchild Gardens has posted the list of plants for their members sale on September 30. I’ve decided to arrive early to get the plants I want.

I’ve summarized some of the summer gingers in the garden, using some of the images from prior posts. It is unfortunate that many of these are not easy to find. Gardino’s nursery in Florida generally sells a good selection of unusual ones over the internet.

As shown above, Kaempferia spp. ‘Grande’, as the name suggests, is big with 14-18″ leaves. At the top of the image, are Curcuma candida leaves and on the side are K. elegans ‘Satin Checks’ leaves.

I call them summer time gingers because their leaves die off during the winter, typically November to January and come back in the spring time. At the end of this posting, I’ve included a few gingers that don’t go dormant, and a few ginger-related plants.

These gingers don’t all come back at the same time – there is a sequence. First to pop up are K. rotunda ‘Asian Crocus.’ The Asian crocus with its flowers with the white stems pop up first, followed by the leaves. Soon afterwards, the ginger patch will be filled with small tightly curled leaves, like little straws, so I know the satin checks will be coming up soon.

The Curcuma candida seems to wake from its sleep around the same time as the K. rotunda ‘Asian crocus’. It has white and orange flowers underneath it’s leaves. For a long time, it was considered a Kaempferia.

The little straws of K. elegans ‘Satin Checks’ quickly unravel in early spring and fill in the ginger patch.

The K. pulchra ‘Silver Spot’ is similar to Satin Checks, and is doing well in the garden. Note the dark green along the leaf margins.

A very bright green species is K. pulchra ‘Shazam’ which I bought recently, and is doing very well. Others may call this K. elegans ‘Silver Spot’ which is really ok by me.

K. rotunda ‘Raven’ leaves are smaller and very distinctive. K. elegans ‘Satin Checks’ is in the top half of the photo.

Last year, I was able to add K. angustifolia ‘Laos Silver Stripe’ to my collection thanks to Gardino nursery. It is filling in nicely.

Cornukaempferia aurantiflora produces bright orange flowers, which in my garden don’t last long. Next time the plant blooms, I will not wait to take a picture.

The summer time gingers include Siphonchilus decora, with it dainty yellow flowers. The flowers don’t seem to last long. Perhaps South Florida is too hot and too wet for too long. Other species produce white flowers and pink ones, with yellow centers. They are native to South Africa and difficult to find. I’ve read that they can be grown in raised beds in Florida.

Globba winitii are commonly referred to as “Dancing Ladies” and there are lavender and white colored varieties. Some vendors refer to them as lavender and white dragons.

I have plenty of the very common Curcuma, sold as Siam tulip at Home Depot (scientific name Curcuma alismatifolia) and they do well in partial shade. The flowers are dropping and soon they’ll be all gone, but they will all be back next year. Too many in fact!

I will give a quick review of plants that will not “disappear” during the winter. Burbidgea schizoceila, Voodoo flame ginger, is a small plant that comes from Borneo, where I don’t think they practice voodoo. It has a beautiful flower, but hasn’t bloomed in a while in my garden. Hoping with a bit of TLC to have blooms next spring. South Florida might be just a bit too hot.

I have posted previously the red and white torch gingers (Etingera elatior) and the beehive gingers (Zingiber spectabile) which are all doing well. I would need a separate page to cover the Hedychium (maybe in the future). The white ginger and Hedychium ‘Dr. Moy’ are still making new flowers.

I also have many ginger related plants which will not disappear in our winter. These gingers are part of the ginger order and include Calathea (part of Marantaceae family) and ornamental bananas. They have renamed the Calathea’s as Goeppertia’s. Too bad as it isn’t easy to spell. The Goeppertia majestica (or ornata ‘Albolineata’, not really sure) is growing well well in the garden.

I will post more on others Goeppertia’s (aka Calathea’s) and Heliconia’s.

Please check out the plant sales coming up, and let me know if I’ve missed any.

Happy gardening,

Dave