Hi Sheila- Really, any of the options you mentioned will work. They root pretty easily. We have cut them and rooted them in a shallow dish of water very easily. They will also root in dirt, cut or still attached to the plant, but I think it takes a bit longer. I would not worry about a soil packet- too much work. I would just wait until the babies are about 4-5 inches tall.- Have fun- Gwenn

Were these those teeny little packaged plants you can get at the airport and souvenir shops? When you say you cut the leaves-- cut them in half, cut them all off, or cut the stems back? How cold is your unheated greenhouse, and when you say new tips do you mean putting up new shoots from the rhizome, or new growth at the end of the stems? Inquiring minds want to know! Okay, here's the deal... Just guessing now, but based on what we call the plants locally I'm assuming White Ginger is Hedychium coronarium (usually called Butterfly Ginger on the mainland), Red Ginger is Alpinia purpurata and Pink Ginger is A. purpurata cv. Eileen McDonald. If this is the case then the Hedychium is going to be more cold-hardy than the 2 Alpinias. Just how cold-hardy I haven't a clue because that's not an issue in Hawaii, but judging by the number of people on this forum that are growing it, I'd say you may have a shot. The Alpinias are more tropical, but without seeing your plants I can't tell you if they're goners or not. If you still have firm stems and/or rhizome, I wouldn't give up yet, but if they're those itty bitty little 2" pot kind, they probably don't have much in the way of reserves to fall back on. Alpinia purpurata doesn't form the same kind of fleshy, creeping rhizome that Hedychiums do either, so the new shoot is not going to have the same appearance. As far as how to take care of them, whatever you can do to provide heat and humidity will help, and if you want them to bloom, they'll need good light. Maybe someone from a similar zone can give you better advice on that than I can. -Lisa

Plant them so they're laying the long way or horizontally and no more than a few inches deep. I think they don't like being too deep and won't come up if they are! Mine didn't even have rhizomes when I got it as a tiny cutting and I just repotted the whole plant, but later it developed large rhizomes , which dont' seem to come up if they're the ones , which have hit the sides of the pot and grown to the bottom. Once they're removed however and planted shallower , they then grow fine. If you see some enlarged areas with a point showing on the rhizomes, those would be the eyes for future stems and shoots and should be planted so they're pointed upward and just with a few inches of soil as previously mentioned. They look a bit like canna rhizomes if you're familiar with the "eyes" on those.

do alpinias do ok over winter here in 9b?? orlando/apopka. i have several small plants i have planted in the ground, but wonder if i should pot them up for the winter to help them get established before planting in the ground??