Whats Looking Good in August....

Fletch, don't be too disappointed, Tara sometimes needs a year to settle before flowering. It depends upon the size of plant or rhizome when you bought it. Just make sure it has plenty of moisture and feed when actively growing and you should get several flowering spikes next year. They are very, very greedy plants

Windy, you can cut the spike just above the top leaf, but leave the rest of the cane since it will continue to support the new shoots and provide food reserves for the rootstock well into early winter. Technically, Tara is evergreen and should be encouraged to continue growing for as long as possible. I usually cut mine down in late spring if the winter hasn't done that for me.

Pete, you'll have no problems with it in Kent and it will usually flower a few weeks earlier than gardnerianum. Mine tend to flower and by that time, secondary shoots rapidly grow up to produce more flowers in autumn. A couple of years ago, one clump even pushed up as third set of shoots which gave flowers right up to Christmas. Gardnerianum can do the same if temperatures stay reasonable. Mine is in flower now and already there are secondaries that are well advanced.

 

Tibouchina Uvilleana
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e331/jolleyer/misc-3.jpg

 

very pretty w

 

My "Tara" is well over 5 foot, sending up loads of shoots but no flowers, same with my other hedichiums - spicata. gardinarium and urr.... forgotten. they all look really well but no flowers.

 

DaveP, thanks for the great info on Hedychiums. It was an impulse buy but I'm falling in love with it, will see how it fairs this winter and then may get a few others.
Any particular food I should be giving it? Will the old chicken pellets be ok?

 

Chicken poo is my favourite and has been for a good 10 years or so. That said, the neighbours do get a bit upset when they first go down. I also give a weekly feed of Miracle-Grow, about a gallon or so per plant. It does make a lot of difference.

Waco, Hedychiums need a good long growing season with fairly high light intensities before they can flower. The further north, the greater the light levels need to be. Every garden has its own micro-climate and when you are growing plants that are on the limit of their levels of tolerance, it is important to ensure they get as much sun and warmth as you can provide.

A plant that performs well in cool shade down here, may need the hottest spot available in north Yorkshire. I know of clumps of 'Tara' that flower well, albeit somewhat late in Edinburgh so it should be OK for you in the right spot. Maybe a really thick winter mulch and additional summer feeding once growth is under way will prove more successful. Don't forget that additional feed - you really can't overdo this.

[ 31. August 2006, 07:06 PM: Message edited by: DaveP ]

 

Thanks DaveP,
I'm off to put poo on Tara :D :D

 

Dave P, I've grown gardnerianum for the last 20 yrs or so here in Kent, in pots and outside all year, but I have never had flowers on the secondary shoots.
These I always end up cutting down frosted usually some time in November, never had a flower open before September either.
So you can see that I'm looking for a ginger that flowers early, is spectacular to look at, has a scent and repeat flowers here.
Not easy to find I bet. :D

 

Pete,
dunno if this will be any use but www.junglegardens.co.uk have a good selection.

 

Yes thanks Windy, I have bought seeds from them and at the same time looked at the plant list.
I tend to shy away from buying plants mail order after some pretty poor plants in the past from various places, not jungle gardens I might add.
Also if you only want one particular plant, as I oftern do, they really hammer you with the carriage charges.

 

But some of them look gorgeous. Must not buy... must not buy... must not buy...
The dancing ladies has really caught my eye. Might find a supplier a little closer to home...

 

Thanks Dave, I did wonder if high levels of feed were causing them to make too much leaf and no flower.

Its been in the mid 30's up her in North Yorks and they have been in hottest part of the garden, however I still live in hope as I had some given by an aunt some years ago which always did well so I think given time these will too.

 

My first reaction was to ask when your plants usually started into growth, because late starts due to low spring temperatures have a marked effect - usually. Then I realised that this year all of mine were later than ever before due to that foul and bitter weather at the end of winter. Despite that, flowering has been as early if not earlier than normal and secondaries on gardnerianum are already 60-70% grown. Friends living further inland who grow theirs in pots (outside for the summer and brought under cover in autumn)often keep have flowers well into winter. So it can't be anything particularly unique to here on the coast.

Pete, Christopher Lloyd grew a very fine Hedychium at Gt. Dixter, which has been identified as a hybrid between gardnerianum and coronarium. It totally 'bucks the trend' by usually flowering early and it certainly puts on a good show with lots of fragrance. It is called 'Devon Cream' and since it has always performed well in Sussex, theoretically it should do equally as well with you.

'Tara' is almost always a good couple of weeks earlier than gardnerianum, although the two invariably overlap in most years. Definitely one for you to try, although fragrance is only slight.

 

Thanks Dave, my outside plants rearly surface before June, occasionally late May.
My pot grown plants, I usually divide each year, as they very quickly fill a twelve or fourteen inch pot, as I plant three largish rhysomes in a pot in order to ensure at least three flowers.
They always start very slowly, but by about now they are growing like crazy, the secondary shoots are really strong and the first ones are budding up.
I've oftern thought it might be a "length of day thing"and wondered if they get too much day length to flower earlier.

 

My hedichiums are flowering!!!!!!

I can only just about see one, but WOW I can smell tham!