After listening to a gardening show saying all ginger roots are edible, I went to grocery store and bought a ginger root from the produce center. After 3 months, I have 3 plants growing. Not sure of what kind it is, but I'll keep you posted.

I have two seed grown lemon slice hibiscus, and tons of hardy caerulea plants to trade for gingers. I also have camellia tea sinensis plants, stevia plants, tons of oleander cuttings and more I could trade. Looking for gingers hardy in zone 8, other than white butterfly. Please e-mail me directly, I do not always get gardenweb e-mails. Thank you :)

I did tropical hibiscus from seed last winter..(of course I can't find my notebook right now to tell you what variety it was) they all pooped out on me when they got to be about 2-3" tall. I was very disappointed. So psyched when they ALL germinated, and then they all died off about the same time..sucked. I have heard that they are hard to do from seed over the winter. I did some in late winter inside & then in the spring outside, and all the ones that germinated made it. Guess maybe I shouldn't have started the first ones in Dec..just too early. Like Karyn said, some may bloom the first year, again it depends on the variety. My one I got from Kristy, I started late winter indoors, and it was blooming for me in the summer! The only one that bloomed for me. I hope mine all make it through this cold winter..they are all outside, mulched well...I should have taken cuttings. I'm afeared for 'em!

To follow up on our discussion of Helleborus foetidus with Karen and Judy at timestamps April 1-2. Our concern was to what degree the problems with dividing it extend to transplanting as a reflection of possible sensitivity to root disturbance. We are pleased to report that the extracted single plant that we obtained from Judy has done very well. It was first kept in a pot in deep shade the whole summer and watered well, even putting on some growth: It was planted out in the first week of November slightly raised with an extra layer of soil added around it (because of root competition in that bed). It is blooming right now: A couple of additional backup plants, obtained in that same batch but kept together in one pot, didn't make it through the summer, indicating that they are still quite sensitive to growth conditions, similar to the earlier batches that were planted out immediately in spring and died. In addition our plan B, to scatter in a number of locations the seeds obtained from Karen plus collected from local sites, turned out fully successful: we got germination of multiple seedlings at each location. So we may finally get some H. foetidus growing.