by Ceil Dow

Thirty four years ago, my husband Rick and I built a pond in the backyard.  Hunting for treasures to plant around the pond, I happened on a ginger aficionado at the Houston Bulb Mart.  After a long discussion, she gave me a handout on the different kinds of gingers available.  I purchased Hedychiums, commonly called Butterfly gingers, and happily danced home with my new friends.  She warned me that Hedychiums could wander or walk out of the area where they are planted, so I convinced my husband to purchase Formica sheets.  We cut the sheets into 2’ sections and then placed them deep into the ground as vertical barriers to make sure the plants stayed in place.  Little did we know that Hedychiums could happily jump over Formica barriers, crawl under fences and creep over rocky enclosures.  Still, the long love affair with gingers bloomed.

Today, there is a collection of 140-ish plants of Costus and gingers in our garden.  Some are planted in pots, in the garden bed or hanging as epiphytes from cedar mounts.  I have ceased efforts to contain any ginger in one spot with physical barriers.  If they get too big, they are cut back and the cuttings are used as inventory for the Mercer Botanical Ginger Garden or Mercer’s ginger plant sales.  Several new varieties of gingers and Costus have been introduced to the Houston area either from cuttings from my garden or by purchasing plants for Mercer’s plant sales.  It has been huge fun to try new ginger plants that were collected from exotic places or newly hybridized by dedicated plant breeders.

Every year is a new plant experiment and a new goal.  I like to watch the gingers and Costus grow to learn the limits of their growing conditions.  Can they take full sun or total shade?  Are the Curcumas purchased at the box stores as vigorous as the more expensive named varieties? (Answer:  Nope.)  Which are tastier, Curcuma or Costus florets?  (Answer:  It’s a tie between Curcuma longa & Costus woodsonii)  Which Hedychiums grow totally submerged in a pond? (Answer: Hedychium coronarium, hands down).  This summer, it has been an experiment with the Costus family, the Spiral Ginger.  Do they bloom better in pots or in the ground?  Which fertilizer makes them bloom better?  No final word on that one.    

Over the years, my garden has matured from its young beginnings as a constrained perennial garden to the unruly boundaries of a collector’s garden.  Growing gingers has been an enjoyable and truly rewarding experience.  As time went by, we became the best of friends.