Slightly slower to get going than cannas but wonderful plants just the same, in flower nothing can touch them, the size and strong honeysuckle smell of the flower heads is something else, very popular in Victorian times and making a come back. Hedychium have spiky foliage similar to the culinary ginger, Zingiber Officinale, and sometimes a distinct ginger smell to their rhizomes, but have much more spectacular flowers. A hedychium plant has two types of stem; the first is the rhizome running at or just below soil surface. The second is the leafy shoots that emerge above ground and carry the unusual blue-green leaves that make hedychium an attractive foliage plant even when not in flower. The flowers are borne from mid summer to the first frosts, the fabulous spicy fragrance of some varieties adds to the tropical look and feel of the plant. They make good cut flowers.

Hedychium vary from frost hardy to tender green house or conservatory subjects, and even some of the hardy types, flower best under protection in colder areas. It is possible to enhance cold tolerance by planting deep in the first year. The rhizomes are happiest at about ground level, and the plants tend to adjust them selves quite quickly, a mulch will help protect against the worst of the winter cold.

The tolerance of plants to cold temperatures is influenced by many factors. In the UK plants tend to succumb in the winter to damp-induced rotting rather than the cold; keeping plants dry can greatly improve their chances of survival. The effects of micro climate can give small areas of a garden, better conditions than others, such as a south or west wall face. It is possible to cheat by having patio containers, and putting the plants inside, a cold or heated area for the winter, though when in growth they must be well watered and fed. To protect plants in situ, fleece or bubble wrap can be used, for permanent plantings straw, leaves or sacking can be used as mulch. A raised bed will help winter wetness or a generally free draining area or soil such as sand. General fertilizer can be usedas hedychium are heavy feeders, and when in growth, should be well watered especially containerized plants. The key to success with these plants is experimentation.

Generally speaking it would be recommended for northern regions of the UK, other than warmer coastal areas, to plant all the hedychium varieties in full sun if used in permanent plantings outside, and give them a deep mulch in the autumn. If kept in pots and inside a conservatory or glass house over the winter the flowering period starts earlier, if inside over the summer they must have some shade.

Southern and western areas, there are some varieties that can in a permanent planting, be in full sun to full shade, with a good winter mulch. There are some varieties which just flower too late in the year, to open before the frost arrives. some costal areas may get a flower or two if it is mild. Though it may still be the case that they will be best kept in a pot and moved inside to flower, before the colder weather arrives, to get the best display. Plants used in a conservatory or glass house in summer will need shade.

Ornamental Gingers Hedychium Spicatum Hedychium spicatum is a very variable species and one of the hardiest, Whilst not the most spectacular of Hedychium, it is one of the most floriferous for the open garden and with slightly scented flowers from 1 to 1.5m which makes it a worth while plant for the herbaceous border. Spicatum tends to set seed readily and when ripe the green seed capsules burst open to reveal orange linings with the seeds enclosed in bright red arils. Spicatum is one of those species that is naturally deciduous before the onset of frost and some forms give good yellow autumn colour, before they need to be cut down. Hedychium Assam Orange Assam orange is one of the best gingers for the open garden, being very hardy and free flowering. It has mid green leaves, and produces flowers of a strong orange colour, opening from the bottom of the inflorescence to the top. It looks good planted with the Gardnerianum Hybrid giving a real contrast in colour and stem/leaf shape, and is of a similar height approximately 5 ft, suitable for the open garden or containers, in full sun or shade and can be used as a cut flower lasting well. Hedychium Greenii Hedychium Greenii is a superb foliage plant, with maroon stems and underside of the leaves, with the top of the leaf a dark glossy green. It has a softer appearance than its spiky architectural relatives with large flowers that are a striking orange-red, but have no scent. Hedychium Greenii is quite hardy but requires a well sheltered position in full sun to light shade if to flower. Give a mulch for the winter if planted out side, to aide frost protection for the rhizomes. It may be worth trying it in wet areas and possibly as a marginal pond plant as it is reported to naturally grow in marshy areas. Greenii flowers rather late in the year, but it makes an excellent container plant with the foliage, and if used in this way it can then brought in to flower in a cold green house or conservatory before the first frosts. Cautleya Spicata This is a plant of the Himalayan foothills from north India east to Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan in China. Its main habitat is forest floors at elevations from 1,100 m to 2,600 m but it is sometimes found epiphytic on trees. Cautleya Spicata has leafy shoots up to about 1 m tall, it is very reliable to flower and quick to form a clump with rich yellow flowers. This is a plant for the garden in a sunny or dappled shady spot, with plenty of organic matter.

Pincushion Gingers Hedychium Ellipticum Hedychium ellipticum makes a superb container plant for greenhouse or conservatory even when out of flower. However, the plant is deciduous in autumn behaving like a high altitude species. Altogether an extremely attractive plant the leaves are broad and dark green and the arching stems strongly patterned from the dark red edges of the clasping leaf bases and red ligules. The plant produces its magnificent flowers at about 1.2 m. The cone-like structure from which emerges a mass of densely packed white flowers with long, projecting orange filaments, last for a period of a week or more. Each flower just gets better and better as more and more flowers open. The flowers are flat-topped giving a very distinctive appearance looking like a pincushion. H. ellipticum flowers produce a spicy, clove-like scent but even on warm evenings the scent is very elusive Hedychium Thyrsiforme Another Pincushion ginger which makes a superb container plant for a greenhouse or conservatory. H. Thyrsiforme is not a particularly hardy plant but if well mulched in winter it can be grown in sheltered gardens as a foliage plant. The slightly glossy, dark green leaves are broad and attractively corrugated and borne on arching stems making it an elegant plant for foliage effect. H. Thyrsiforme flowers at about 1 m with white flowers with a pale cream flush at the base. The flowers are produced fairly late in the season and can be damaged by early frosts. They are, however, delightful, being white with pale cream throats and very spiky (hence pincushion). Thyrsiforme flowers best when grown in a cold greenhouse or as a potted conservatory plant. .

Butterfly Gingers Hedychium Aurantiacum An extremely hardy exotic ginger, which has a finer growth habit than many other gingers, Aurantiacum has red markings on the stems and in late summer produces red / orange flowers at around 1m that last well. Suitable for garden borders where it will form impressive clumps in full sun to shade. Hedychium Griffithanium Hedychium Griffithanium makes an extremely attractive pot plant for the cool greenhouse or conservatory although it can be used in the garden it will flower to late before the frosts arrive. It is best over wintered in a glass house or conservatory, then placed outside from late June onwards. Delightfully fragrant in the evenings H. Griffithianum flowers at about 1 m tall with spikes of spidery white flowers with salmon-pink filaments. Keep containers well watered and fed when in growth. Hedychium Pink This is a vigorous plant quickly producing a large number of canes topped with spikes of flowers having a pink-flushed white labellum with a dark pink flame at the base, which also has an attractive scent. We recommend it for a cold greenhouse or conservatory until the plant is large enough to divide, then try some out-side in a sunny sheltered spot, where it should flower in southeast regions. Winter protected containers can be taken outside to flower planted directly into a garden border, by sinking the pot in to the ground, which can then be lifted for the following winter, or used on a patio. Hedychium Gardnerianum This is a reliable free flowering form, suitable for the garden, or large containers, which can then be over wintered in a cold/heated greenhouse/conservatory, for an earlier flowering. Winter protected plants in a cold green house can flower from the end of July onwards and permanently planted plants in the boarder from the end of August. It has large heads of highly perfumed, fragrant bright yellow flowers with an orange filament.