GINGERS
(Zingiberaceae)
The Zingiberaceae is a large family of rhizomatous plants originating from Asia and the Far East and have been cultivated there for centuries. It includes the horticulturally boring but very tasty Zingiber officinale, used in cooking. In Victorian times gingers were very popular plants indeed, but this popularity has waned somewhat in the last hundred years or so owing to the misconception that they are difficult tropical plants that require constant heat. In fact many of them are pretty hardy and those that aren't can quite easily be grown in greenhouse or conservatory with the minimum of heat.
CULTIVATION
Although most members of the Zingiberaceae originate from sub-tropical regions, all species listed above as being hardy can be grown permanently outside provided that they are given some form of an adequate mulch to protect the rhizomes from winter frosts. In our experience the best mulch should comprise of straw, chopped bracken or course bark laid 6" thick over the root area of the plant. This can be applied before the onset of really hard frosts (light autumn frosts do little damage to the hardier species) or you can wait until the first severe frost has blackened the leaves and apply the mulch then. Do not let several repeatedly hard frosts attack the plants as this will undoubtedly spell disaster. When you decide to apply the mulch, cut all growth to the ground and cover. Of course in frost-pockets you may decide to lift the plants and store them relatively dry over the winter. This is fine and provided you can give the plants some extra heat the following spring (even if this is in the form of an unheated greenhouse) they will produce much earlier and advanced growth and therefore be more robust plants for planting in the open ground (after an initial period of hardening them off). After hardening-off they can be planted out in late April or early May. Gingers prefer a position in full sun or part or dappled shade. Most species will tolerate any of these situations but some have more specific requirements (please refer to individual descriptions). However, without exception, all require a fairly humus-rich soil that remains moist but is adequately drained. This almost sounds like a contradiction in terms. The easy way to achieve this is to apply to the planting area liberal quantities of well rotted horse manure and half of grit or sharp sand. It works, honestly: the humus and nutrients are supplied by the horse manure, the drainage is supplied by the incorporation of grit (gravel, pea-shingle, whatever) or sharp sand.
OVERWINTERING
All of the tender species can be grown outside during the summer months but should be moved under cover during the autumn. If you can afford the heating costs, many of the non-deciduous species will remain in growth if the temperature is kept above 16 degrees centigrade. But don't worry if you're not a millionaire, as all species we list will survive at a minimum temperature of 7 degrees centigrade (and quite a few of them at temperatures barely above zero). The main aim is to keep the pots barely moist: by which we mean not wet, well watered or damp, nor at the other extreme do we mean totally dry or desiccated so that the compost resembles dust. It's an in-between thing: the best advice is to water them enough to dampen the top layer of compost and to allow this layer to totally dry out before watering again. The period between waterings depends entirely on where you live and under what conditions they are grown but generally speaking during December to February our plants in Norfolk would be carefully watered.
POT CULTURE
All members of the ginger family that are grown in pots respond well to feeding. During spring and through to early autumn feed pot plants regularly with any proprietary fertiliser ('Miracle-Gro' is excellent). Once a month is usually sufficient.
