Anyone tried growing ginger?

In case you're interested, you can also grow lemon grass from the stems you buy in Morrisons. It's much more fragrant from the plant than the ones you buy.

 

With the lemon grass how is it propagated ,can I just dip the ends in rooting powder as with any other cuttings?

 

I love it ... gardening advice never really changes ... this post started 14 years ago!

 

I have tried to grow edible ginger from supermarket roots but didn't have the heat to keep it happy during the winter. I just pushed a piece of sprouting ginger root into potting compost in a pot on the window sill. It grew stems and leaves which grew to about 12 inches but it died the following year. I also have tried growing lemongrass, which again grew but didn't survive. Maybe general neglect on my part. Heat and moisture but not too much seems to be the requirements.
Now I have a bed of non edible ginger plants growing in the garden. They grow to about 4/5 ft tall, have spidery cream or orange flowers and thick rhizome roots which crawl on the surface of the ground.The flowers smell wonderful but the roots do not have a strong flavour, they do smell of ginger if bruised. I leave the tops of the plants on until late Spring as a mulch to protect them from frost but they have survived this last wet winter and are about 2ft tall at the moment. They flower Aug/Sept and the cream ones always flower about 3 weeks before the orange ones.
I am guessing edible ginger probably grows to about the same size as decorative ginger so you would need a very large pot to grow it on to useable size. I would also guess the rhizomes should be planted like iris roots, half buried with the growth nodules uppermost, rather than covered with soil, maybe for a good baking to ripen in the summer.
It is fun to try growing these exotics.

 

In water, like soft wood cuttings

 

Does ginger and lemon grass from sources other than Morrisons work as well?
Lemon grass comes easily from seed, sow at a similar time to basil; in my case late April in the greenhouse.

 

Sainsburys is a good source as is the tropical plant growing shops(asian/oriental supermarkets)
Never tried from seed....dammit, now I've got to get some!

 

I got mine from Chiltern Seeds, I'm sure other suppliers are available.
I have a number of ornamental gingers outside, need a good summer to flower with me. Rhizomes are just below the soil surface/at the surface. This year they were late coming through.

 

I'm growing some ornamental ginger from my own saved seed from last year, seed taken from "tara" which I believe is a hybrid, so anything could happen.

Seedlings about 5ins tall now and ready to be potted on.

 

I've tried "Tara" from seed purchased, without much success, so how did you germinate it please.

 

Just in a pot of compost, in propagator, came up easily in about 3 weeks or so.
I doubt it will be true to "tara" as I think it might have crossed with H. densiflorum which was flowering next to it, but I thought it was worth a try when I saw the seed pods.

 

I've still got hedychium densiflorum 'assam orange' flourishing, but my porous soil isn't ideal for most butterfly gingers without serious work. I lost h. greenii, h.auranticum, h forrestii and a cautlaya during the heat of July 2018. Just couldn't get enough water to them.
I'm trying again soon...when I've saved up my pocket money!

 

I am not much help as my decorative gingers were just planted and left to get on with it. They come up each year and flower. I did give them a dusting of F,B & B this year, first time in 10 or so years they have been fed. I did plant a red one at the same time as the cream and the orange ones but it died after a few years in a bad winter.
They were planted on a large raised heap of topsoil, weed membrane laid and topped with slate chippings. I cut planting holes and apart from weeding they have been untouched since.
I first saw them growing in containers in the restaurant in Tresco Gardens and had to have one, or two, or three! I bought the original plants in a local GC. They are verging on becoming invasive but it would need a pick axe and crane to reduce the clumps of tubers.

 

A friend sent me this Youtube clip out of interest.
At time 12mins 10 secs you can watch a bit of ginger root growing

 

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