hi there, well i finally moved to a beautiful little victorian cottage with a really old proper greenhouse(none of your alluminium tat) last december and have been enjoying myself ever since. my carnivorouses have boomed..after living in a flat they obviously love the light, warmth of the greenhouse..and i have been experimenting with anything and everything. i planted some budding garlic, which sprouted and grew onion like leaves but have now died completely, well at least the shoots above the soil have so who knows whats happening with that, and i found a piece of ginger in my fridge that was budding...put it in a pot and alakazam...up it shot! it has about 3 or 4 stems and leaves, and has grown to a height of 2 1/2 foot...but now as autumn and winter approach...i think what now?? i potted the root in about a 25cm ish diameter pot and it seems to like it...but what next???? over to you boffins! many thanks and kind regards for reading nikimeijei

I'm still waiting and hoping for the stalks to open, how long does it typically take, or is it based on too many variables? How cold can they take it and still bloom? It got down to 34°F last night, I have clear vinyl sheeting around them, seems to be protecting them. Is there a certain temperature range that is needed for them to bloom? It doesn't seem to be the light hours since other people have reported blooming in the summer and fall. I'm so desperate to get at least one stalk, would digging one up and potting it to bring inside work? I also have some already in a pot with a couple newer buds. If I bring that inside, would they still bloom? What environment would be the best? Sunny window, warm, cool, etc? Any questions answered will be greatly appreciated! kari

Oh, congratulations!! Mine are still in the fridge:)

Your pictures look like "common Ginger," AKA "true ginger" or "Canton ginger", scientific name "Zingiber officinale." It's the ginger you get as fresh ginger root at the grocery store. That's what I grow. I grow all my ginger plants in containers, so everything I have any given year is "first year growth." I harvest everything from my containers and I save some "seed rhizomes" from the first plant or two that die back and go dormant every year. My "first year" ginger plants nearly always bloom, and blooms range in color from white to orange to deep red to purple. From my own experience, I think the color of the blooms has more to do with chemistry than genetics. Plants grown in identical growing mix and fertilized with identical fertilizer tend to have the same coloration to the blooms. Of course, I don't always use the same growing mix for all my plants, so I get some variety in the blooms on mine.