Kitchen culture education is holding home tissue culture workshops in Las Vegas and Washington DC. The topics will include tropicals, tropical fruits, Bananas, African violets, and many other plants, depending on the classes' interests. There will be lots of class participation! Sign up here... http://www.hometissueculture.org/htcgworkshops.htm I am signed up for the Las Vegas location on Saturday, March 14th. The Las Vegas workshop has 20-25 available seats. Hope to see you there! There is another workshop April 4th in Washington DC. I am not sure how many seats remain for that location. There are other tentative locations depending on the amoumnt of interest from those regions. (Disclaimer: I have no connection with this workshop, I only would like to see more of them for the good of our plants and their propagation!) Jeff

I have grown these gingers for over 10 years. Not that I am an expert, LOL because I am not. But, you will probably go through a very very long haul with your plant before you get it to bloom, especially if it was a plant that came from tissue culture origins. Those tend to be a lot weaker than ones propagated from rhizome division. They grow in a very tight clump, and when grown in a container, if they are happy, they will fill the container quickly. But, this isn't always good, because they will fill it with very small diameter canes. Then you have to keep repotting and/or dividing the plant. What you need to have to get blooms is a larger plant, about 4-5 feet tall with canes the diameter of at least the small end of a pool cue. This takes time. I am not certain if you are aware, but these plants get massive. I have had them in the greenhouse with 10-12 ft tall canes and blooms over a foot tall. They are not really well suited to growing in a house, even with augmented lighting conditions. They like a lot of sun, a lot of humidity, a lot of water, and they are very heavy feeders under the right conditions. At any rate, A. purpurata has to be at least 2 full years old to bloom. They only bloom on 'old growth' so your plant has to have some age to it. Oh, and they don;t die at 55F. They will survive in the ground here (I have them planted at my house and have for many years), they freeze to the ground and come back from the rhizome mass. But, as said before, once they lose their topgrowth and have to come back, its bye bye any hope of blooms. Only way to get blooms on plants in the ground is live in zone 9B-11 or have a greenhouse

About 6 frost-free months in my section of New England - zone 6b. In colder sections you might get 4 months. Frost Dates Claire

Hi, Gordon, I'd definitely be interested. Please let me know if it's a go. Thanks! Best, Jen