My crepe ginger has never bloomed. It freezes back every winter and comes back beautifully every spring and summer. However, if it is like variegated shell ginger, it blooms on prior year growth... which is why even though we have tons of shell ginger in Jacksonville, you never see one in bloom... except sometimes close to the beach and the St. Johns River where they didn't have a hard freeze. DG, mine also lives under a tree - the magnolia, in my case. It seems to be a very happy place for a ginger. Carol

There is a very hardy bromeliad that has green leaves with simple red blooms that doesn't grow more then a foot high. I can't remember the name of it but both my parents and I have decent sized patches of them and I've never seen any frost damage on them even though we live in a cold spot in zone 9a. You could plant something like that and mix some other plants like jungle gold peacock ginger or purple queen in for some extra summer time color. Here's what the brom looks like when not in bloom. If you're interested I can probably bread off a few starts from one of the larger clumps of plants and mail them to you. Here's another tough variety of brom that I unfortuneatly don't know the name of. The trick to finding cold hardy broms seems to be in how serrated the leaf edges are. It seems like the more teeth a plant has the hardier it is! And here's a variety of brom that I think is related to the painted finger nail. These are growing at the base of a large oak and I've never covered them even in the hardest freeze. Jungle gold peacock ginger and another type that again I can't quite remember the name of. I believe that jungle gold is the largest of the peacock gingers but it still doesn't get over a foot tall. Kara

Last call! Still available: Clematis/Sweet Autumn; Plumeria Seeds; Gingers - only white butterfly and shell remaining. Water plants - miniature arrowhead; minature cat-tail [often called bullrush]; water lillies. Absolutely no freebies due to the abuse by a handful of members couple of years ago over suggested postage/not sending sasbe's etc. Sorry but I just can't be bothered with the hassle.

If I read you correctly, the ginger is sitting there for five years in a pot. If so, it will certainly have grown its roots into the ground. Judging by the photo, you plant is likely an Alpinia which does not go dormant and since it appears healthy, you must have either fertilised it frequently or it has already eascaped the pot. Alpinias are robust plants and will not suffer badly if you hack off the roots emerging from the pot and either planting it out or repotting it. Splitting the rhizome, however, is case for a very sharp spade or axe and hard work. Regarding the macadamia, what do you want to do with it, why do you want to butcher the tree? It seems well formed, chopping parts off will not increase its visual appeal, maybe just leave it. Why are you concerned about shade?