I've grown under T8 lamps before, and as mentioned, I grew cacti & succulents under a 400 Metal Halide fixture. This wasn't supplemental, but full time, and I got real good results, mainly because I gave my plants 16 hours a day of sun, which here in Wisconsin, is only available in the peak of summer. It is very easy, if not easier, to grow under lights, assuming you definately have enough intensity. The only negatives are obviously the cost to buy the lights, and the cost to run them, plus the space they take up. I agree that sun is best, for obvious reasons, but with lights, you can control everything, even things like the blooming of certain plants, like Christmas cactus and such. Be warned though, that once you figure out how well lights can work, it's real easy to get lots more plants, because there isn't a window limiting the space available. Joe

1. It likes mainly shade/part shade/dappled shade. Regular water, not a bog. 2. It is a naturally deciduous ginger that is root hardy in your area. It will go away in winter and return in Spring. Flowers will come up first before leaves. FLowers are usually either white or purple, a few have gold flowers. Most continue to flower after leaves appear. Yes its a "true ginger". The name is generally Kaempferia or Cornukaempferia. 3. Size depends on type. Gilbertii and Gilbertii 3D are extremely smallish, 4-7 inch narrow leaves. Grande is very large, leaves can be almost 2 ft long and 8 or so inches wide. Raven and Indian Crocus have upright leaves about a foot long and maybe 3" wide. Most of the others kinda hug the ground and have leaves maybe 8-10 inches long and 5-6 inches wide.

I put my hedychiums just under a large high energy efficient light but I cut all the stalks down and just leave the small ones that are under 2 feet high - actually with any of my plants under lights I do this if the leaves get to large especially my brugs I just trim them back and let the smaller ones take over - in the spring around feb/march I will just let them grow out

Our KD's designed the doors on our upper cabs to be longer (taller?) than the cabs themselves so we could go handle-less on the doors (never intended by us) and to cover the lights, except then you'd see the lighting fixtures when the doors were open. We had them install light rails (that strip of molding under the cabs), and the U/C's are completely hidden unless you look from underneath, A little OT for jraz_wa and imrainey--your kichler U/C's; we have the linnear lighting as well. Do you find that some of the lampholders (bulbs) do NOT light when you turn your U/C's lights on? We have some that consistently don't light, and some that take turns. When I turn on my U/C's, I go around the room tapping or jiggling some of the bulbs to get them to light. TIA