Knobbly, gnarly ginger creates warm, spicy flavours in curries and stews, cakes, biscuits, teas, and beers. Sidestep the supermarket version and try growing your own flowering ginger varieties at home.
That ugly, wrinkled rhizome, or underground stem, actually comes from an elegant, long-stemmed plant with long, narrow leaves that you can grow indoors, or out where it’s warm. We have a step-by-step guide on how to grow ginger at home, or try some of the other gingers that serve a more ornamental purpose with their unusual flowers that make striking statements in the lush foliage.
Turn a shady, moist part of your garden into a mini tropical jungle with ginger plants – grow them for your kitchen or for their exotic blooms!
1. Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet)
Big, gold-striped, lance-shaped, shiny, and lush foliage is a feature all year round but spring and summer is when this ginger sparkles. Cascades of pale pink and white, seashell-like flowers with red and golden centres tumble from the leafy stems. Growing 1-1.5m, it also adds a tropical theme to shady verandahs.
2. Tulip Ginger (Curcuma spp)
Rising above the broad leaves, the lower bracts of the tulip or Siam ginger are small and green, and it’s between these that tiny flowers emerge. It’s the top of the inflorescence that is so eye-catching – a brilliant cluster of bracts in shades of pink, mauve and white in summer and autumn. These sun-loving stunners remain on the plant for up to three months.
3. Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior)
Rising directly from the base of the plant in summer, the dazzling 1m tall flower spikes feature bright red, pink or sometimes white bracts, from which emerge small flowers that are equally dramatic. Shielded by lance-like leaves, they bloom throughout the year in the tropics, with each inflorescence lasting several weeks.
4. Beehive Ginger (Zingiber spectabile)
You’ll want this ginger not for the mini summer flowers, but for the bizarre beehive-shaped bracts rising on stalks amid the fountain-like foliage that rises to 2m. The yellow, orange or chocolate-coloured bracts last long after the flowers have finished and look amazing in cut-flower arrangements. Although beehive ginger bracts come in different colours, as they age, they all turn red.
5. Ginger Lily (Hedychium spp)
Beautifully fragrant pale yellow, apricot or red lily-shaped flowers rise in dense spikes in late summer and autumn above the long, dark-green foliage that grows to 2-2.4m. This ornamental ginger is frost tolerant so will grow in cooler areas in full sun. In warm regions, give it light shade. You can cut the flowers for a fragrant indoor display. Ginger can grow indoors in bright, indirect light, but flowering is rare so grow for its foliage.
Eating ginger, Zingiber Officinale
The flowers are tiny but the dense, cone-shaped flower spikes from which they emerge are magnificent – a series of green-yellow bracts with translucent margins. The foliage dies down in late autumn, which is when you harvest rhizomes for your kitchen. You can also use the leaves in cooking if you want to add a mild flavour. Fresh foliage emerges in spring. Supermarket gingers have probably been treated with growth inhibitors to prevent them sprouting while still on the shelves. Instead, get a rhizome from an organic grocery or garden centre.
