best light /cutting back a Butterfly Ginger?

19 years ago

Hi everyone,

I'm new in the ginger forum, been posting and learning in the plumeria forum for a while. :-) I'm in Southern california (Thousand Oaks).

I have a yellow butterfly ginger that is in a large (14") pot. I orginally purchased it to give a "tropical" foliage feel to my atrium and fountain area, I didn't realize how gorgeous the flowers are!

It has given me 3-4 sets of incredibly fragrant blossoms each year for the last 3 years, but I think it needs more sun than it currently receives (early morning sun,filtered or no direct sun otherwise), so I will move it elsewhere to encourage more flowers.

Any recommendations as to how much sun is best? I have two options: a west-facing deck that gets some shade in the late afternoon (potted dwarf citrus thrive there); a south/east facing patio with slatted wood covering that gets morning sun, filtered day/afternoon sun, strong late afternoon sun. Suggestions?

Also: the ginger currently has 10 stalks, each about 5-6 ft. high happily growing right now. The stalks are so heavy that they are falling over, and I'm trying to stake them but there are a lot of rhizomes and not much space for stakes!

Cut it back now? Move the plant now? or wait till possible freezes are past?

thanks for all help!

Kitty

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Comments (5)

rayandgwenn
19 years ago
Hi Kitty-

Let me get this straight ... You've had a Hedychium in a 14" pot for 3 years? No wonder the pot is full of rhizomes! Have you ever divided it? Hedychium are very easy to divide and (as you probably know) very fast growers.

We grow ours in part shade to almost full sun.

-Ray
MissKitty1393
Original Author
19 years ago
Hi Ray,
ummmm.... no. I've never divided it. it was in a much smaller pot when I got it, so I moved it up to a 14". do you have some guidelines for doing that? a sharp knife?

...what type of potting soil? do I divide it in half, or what? And should I do it now, or wait a few weeks?
Thanks! I do pretty good at gardening, and I'm doing well with my plumerias, but gingers are a new area for me.
Kitty
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Donn, what are you transplanting them into, pots or beds. I would probably not cut them back yet, and go ahead and transplant them as quickly as possible, as they are starting to leaf. I would then see how they grow, and take it from there, pruning to make them bushier. The ones I receive from nurseries are normally one year plants, and have been pruned to develop a fuller plant, cut down to about 5-6 inches. So I think considerable pruning is done in the first year. These are cutting grown, not seedlings, so that may be different. May I also suggest --I have had really good luck transplanting buddleia into pots, and watering them in the first time with a weak Miracle Gro/ water solution. i think this would help in a bed also. Congratulations on your success in starting these from seed. By the way, they are very easy to start from cuttings. (Just be sure to avoid that nasty patent thing LOL) Polly
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Hello fellow Hedychium lovers. I live in z8 Oregon. I have grown different Hedychiums for years. The most dependable bloomer here is "Tara" It is a H. coccineum variety.It blooms for about a month every August with light orange blooms and is fragrant. Very lush too. I fertilize it when I think about it in the growing season but it doesnt seem to care about that as I am a great mulcher. It dies to the ground every winter. I have tried H. coronarium too. It lived for years but never bloomed. I think that we do not have a long and hot enough growing season here in the NW. Often it would just get ready to bloom in October and then would fizzle out when the rainy season started. All of my things have to be IN THE GROUND. So far I have tried about 10 different varieties of Hedychium. Only Tara has bloomed reliably. I think that there are others that are early bloomers that would work here. I think that if you plant any of them where they dont sit in winter wet, and let them mass, they will be just fine. There are so many available now. Just check out www.stokestropicals.com. I think that there are several that are early bloomers. They should also work well in our NW climate and actually bloom. Mine all made it through 1991 when it got down to 9 degrees here. Of course the foliage looked like cooked spinach but they all came back in the spring and bloomed in August.
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rayandgwenn
19 years ago
Kitty-

Given your zone, you could probably divide it any time. We're in a similar zone, and we divide ours whenever they look like they need it.

Start by dumping everything out of the pot. Then get as much dirt off as you can so that you can (1) see the rhizome structure, and (2) untangle the fiberous roots as you make your divisions. It will be obvious where to make your cuts. A sharp knife should do the job. Try to divide into clumps of 2-3 "stalks". You will probably also see new shoots starting from the rhizomes. They will appear as little pinky-white nubs. Make sure there are some of those on each clump when you make your cuts. If you end up with a rhizome with no stalk, that's OK. Just put it into it's own pot and cover under about 1/2" of soil. It will start to show signs of growth in a couple of weeks.

If you're not sure where to make your cuts (if the rhizomes are just so intertwined) just cut anywhere. We had one container that was so jam packed that I had no choice but to cut it down the middle and then lop of pieces ever couple of inches. From that one pot we now have 8 5-gallon containers that are almost ready to divide. And it only took 6 months!

As for soil, we use a soil-less "pro-mix" type of medium. We fertilize with 20-20-20 and vitamin B1 on a weekly basis. We keep our new divisions in light shade for a couple of weeks until they start to perk back up. Also, keep the medium moist but not wet. You don't want to risk rotting the rhizomes.

Be prepared that some of the existing stalks may lose leaves or die back totally. That's OK. As long as there are some new growing eyes you'll be in good shape. And in the end you'll have divisions to trade with people!

Hope this helps
-Ray
bigeasyjock
19 years ago
Just a hi out ta ray and gwen ;o)
Miss Kitty you surely need to divide those rhizomes by now!!! Butterflies go dormant over winter here even in z. 9. Thats when I whack out the old stalks and dig rhizs. to swap or give to friends.
Also you should know that once a stalk has bloomed thats it no more blooms from that stalk. So with that in mind you may cut out stalks after they bloom. This should ecourage the root to send up another flowering stalk.
Oh and many of the butterflies tend to flop over.
Mike
MissKitty1393
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks for all the great info, Ray & Mike! I've got this as my big project for the weekend.

I am going to buy what I need at the plant nursery tomorrow, take a deep breath, and start dividing.....

I already cut back the floppy stalks; that was a big help, just to get an idea of what I'm dealing with (which is LOTS of rhizomes!) I'll let you-all know how it goes!

meows,
Kitty

best light /cutting back a Butterfly Ginger?

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best light /cutting back a Butterfly Ginger?

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