Subject: Re: Red Ginger Needs Help

From: "Sean A. O'Hara" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 95 18:02:02 PDT

> From: [email-masked] (Bill Lowe)
> Newsgroups: rec.gardens
> Subject: Red Ginger Needs Help
> Date: 26 Mar 1995 18:03:43 GMT
> I brought an eye of Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata) from Hawaii home to PA 
> 2/94 and it did great, lots of 4'spkies but no flowers until last month.  
> Now all of the spikes are turning brown and dying back.  Does anyone know
> if this plant goes dormant or am I loosing it? 

Bill - 

Your mention of a flowering is the key.  Here is our mild climate, gingers
are generally evergreen, but individual stems DO die out after flowering.
If you look at the base of the plant, I bet you'll find new shoots there
that will ultimately take the place of the current 'stems'.  BTW these are
not really 'stems' in the sense that we  usually think of them - they are
not woody at all, and a basically made up of leaf bundles.  If they are
damaged, bent, etc. they might not really ever recover, but new stems 
usually grow easily.  This is why Ginger Root has all those branched and
knobby growths - these are the various shoots of the rhizome (underground
stem).  Good luck!
 
 H O R T U L U S   A P T U S  ('gardens', 'suited to their purpose')
 Sean A. O'Hara
 710 Jean Street, Oakland, CA  94610-1459        [email-masked]
 (510) 987-0577

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From: "Sean A. O'Hara" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 95 18:02:02 PDT

Bill -