Xanthosoma Aurea lime Zinger for Alpinia zerumbet variegata (variegated shell ginger). Please email me if u r interested

I myself am new to this plant, but I have noticed that the leaves will curl in on themselves if I let the soil get too dry. A thorough soaking remedies the problem for me. So in my limited experience, yes, you are probably underwatering. It is virtually impossible to tell how much water is enough by measuring in ounces and such. The best way not to overwater is to make sure you wet the soil thoroughly (water should come out of the drainage holes--dump the excess). Then allow the soil to dry a bit before watering again.

I've grown in in pots, and in the ground inside a greenhouse. You can get it to bloom in a container, but the blooms will be smaller, UNLESS, you are planning on growing it in a huge, deeper tub, like 35+ gallons, where it will really simulate being in the ground. I have had several different cultivars bloom in pots, but like Steve said, pitiful in comparison to what you get in the ground. I grew the red, the pink (Eileen McDonald) and the variegated flower Polynesian Princess for several years, planted in the ground inside my greenhouse. The stands get absolutely huge. The red is by far the largest in stature, individual stalks can reach 8+ feet and the inflos can be almost a foot long. The pink is smaller but not by much. The stands in the ground have a lot of 'lean out' and large diameter stalks so they are very hoggish of space. They take up a lot of room. And its true, they attract scale and mealybugs bigtime in an enclosed environment. My greenhouse is large (over 1700 sq ft) so I had the room, but after a while, I just put Alpinia purpurata in the 'been there done that' category of tropical gingers, and I dug them out and planted them into the ground here in 8B, where they were absolutely beautiful for one season, then were killed by frost.

I'm in Raleigh (zone 7b) and I have had it happen in the past and I've seen it happen in other peoples gardens but the plants suffer so much in a cold winter that it isn't worth it. Even with a mild winter (not like this year) they don't emerge until Summer, sometimes around early July. It takes them so long to get up to speed and then fall happens and its time to go to sleep again. It will wear them out in a few years. A lot of people just mark where they are and dig them up when they have time - even after a hard freeze has killed the leaves.