Hedychium

[CG100]

Does anyone grow any?

Here in the UK many are hardy, but for most of the country if they are grown outdoors, in the ground, they go completely dormant during winter and the growing season is too short for them to flower. Far better to grow them in pots and keep them frost-free and get them into growth early with some extra warmth, even if provided simply by a greenhouse warmed by spring sunshine.

I have several species and most only seem to produce 1, 2, 3 shoots from new rhizome each spring, even if there is plenty of healthy older rhizome in the pot. Is this normal?

How are the pots that frequently appear online, with several growths in an 8-10-12 inch pot, produced?

[Martin Bohnet]

Here in Germany them being hardy is a rather new phenomenon (further south but occasionally continental weather), but I have some experiments going - my slugs are a problem, though, so the first one I planted out (either yuannense or tengchongense) really establishes very slowly. this spring I added densiflorum and deceptum to the outdoor experiments, too early to say anything.

Potted, the tengchongense is usually the first to flower (mid July) even though it does go totally dormant, so it's possibly the best garden candidate - also because it's only 1m tall. Next one chronologically is densiflorum (first half of August), then deceptum (budding right now). The latter two only flower this early since I stopped them from going completely dormant - they've been kept at 2°C minimum for the last 2 winters. They share a 90l mortar bucket (with added holes), that's the maximum I can move. I have a few other species and hybrids which haven't flowered yet.

As for the branching pattern: the older rhizomes can fully establish a new plant when cut from the newer tips. I guess it's hormonal suppression, so you basically have to sever the connections to get more growth. for me that's comparable to some rhizomatous iris species behaving just the same for me.