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 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 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 Flavescens
Hedychium Flavescens grows to about 6ft with slightly grey green leaves. The flowers are a large creamy yellow colour produced from a cone like spike. The fragrance is a powerful spicy, citrus flower scent which remains fairly strong all day. It is a hardy ginger taking temperatures down to -4oC in a pot, but because it flowers fairly late, September onwards, it is best brought inside to flower to evade the early frost in inland areas. If the fragrance is too strong in a confined space remove all but one inflorescence. Good as a cut flower, giving a strong attractive scent in the house.

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.

Hedychium Gardnerianum St Martins Hybrid
This is a robust and very 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, honeysuckle scented, fragrant bright yellow flowers with an orange red filament. This plant originated from St Martins, Isle of Scilly, and is well capable in coping with wind. Whilst being Suitable for large patio containers of around 15litres or more, kept in full sun or shade, it can flower in its first year of division, though the second year is more certain, in much smaller pots. It flowers at around 1.4m tall (4ft) and is hardy to -10°C (USDA zone 8).

Hedychium Gardnerianum Tresco Hybrid
This is as free flowering and strong growing a form, as the Gardnerianum Hybrid we have from St Martins. The foliage and flowering height are the same at around 1.4m, the only difference is the flower colour as both have a superb fragrance. This form has more coronarium influence flower with a paler lemon yellow colored petal and paler yellow orange filament. Slightly later flowering than the St Martins hybrid, if given winter protection under cold glass in large patio containers or green house boarder, it can flower from the beginning of August. Suitable for full sun or shade in a sheltered permanent planting, or if kept under glass in the summer it will require some shade. It is hardy to around -10oc (USDA Zone 8) and extremely wind tolerant, this form has also been called "Devon Cream", (Limited availability).

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.

Hedychium Griffithianum
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 Kewense
Hedychium Kewense is an outstanding butterfly ginger, growing to approximately 6ft tall. The foliage has narrow bluish green leaves and stem, producing a slightly fragrant, pink flower spike from the end of July onwards if grown in a cold glass house from early spring. It will grow in partial shade to full sun, and is hardy enough to stay planted in the border in a sheltered position with a winter mulch. Good as a cut flower lasting well, with a slight fragrance and pretty colour, (Limited availability).

Hedychium Maximum
This is a very large robust ginger, with dark green leaves, growing to approximately 7ft tall. It flowers in late summer, with very large yellow fragrant flowers. It can be used as an herbaceous back drop in the garden being quite hardy, in full sun to partial shade. But it flowers too late in the year to flower outside, so it will have to be kept in large containers to flower, or suitable for borders in larger conservatories and green houses and can be used as a cut flower lasting well, (Limited availability).

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 Samsheri
This is a graceful plant, producing tall slender canes, and narrow glaucous leaves. It grows to around 6 ft producing glossy, shell pink flowers from August onwards under cold glass. It requires full sun to light shade and a sheltered spot in the garden, given a winter mulch Samsheri is hardy to at least -4 ºC. If kept in a conservatory this plant will act as an evergreen, cut previous years stems down in late July, keep well watered, and feed regularly when container grown.

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 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. .

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.