Hedychium griffithianum

Description

Hedychium griffithianum is a delightful lower growing ginger that produces large flower heads of sweetly fragrant creamy white flowers which are adorned with pinkish  pollen bearing stamens. The petals are narrow almost frilly creating a beautiful spike of spidery pink and cream above the broad deep green leaves. Hedychium griffithianum is a great candidate for permanent planting outdoors in sheltered mild garden where it will rapidly spread into a multi-stemmed plant producing lots of flower spikes from late summer up to the first frosts. Alternatively the compact habit of the ginger lends itself perfectly to cultivation in a container where it can be placed outdoors from mid-spring  and allowed to enjoy the fresh air for the summer and brought uncover from September where if you are lucky enough to have a conservatory or bright position indoors flowering can continue right up into winter, meaning you can have a house full wonderful blooms and delicous fragrance.

As with all temperate gingers the key to success is a good start to the growing season ideally starting growth as early as possible during mid spring. Start regular feeds of a high nitrogen fertiliser to encourage rapid strong growth then as the season develops use a high potash feed such as liquid seaweed or even tomato fertiliser to encourage flower production. If you are growing in a container don’t worry too much if your ginger looks pot bound as long as you are regularly feeding it will be quite happy even flowering more as a result.

It should be noted that we like to sell all our hedychiums in containers, they are rooted plants with at least a seasons growth and will be established enough to produce flowers given good growing conditions the following year if not before. They are slightly more expensive than buying bare rhizomes but we feel this is a better option as most hedychium dislike root disturbance and take a while to recover. You will also be receiving a larger plant.

Depending on the time of year we may cut back foliage to facilitate shipping. This will only be done to late season growth and will not harm the plant in anyway