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Monday, October 3, 2016

Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium) thriving in New York City

I fell in love with Butterfly ginger in Hawaii 6 years ago and could never imagine the tiny touristy pieces of ginger root I brought home would fill my yard with ginger blooms for the past 4 years. The bloom season usually starts in late August. The plants bloom heavily until the first frost of the season, usually in November. October is the best month for blooms since the weather is comfortable and there are lots of flower buds!

The foliage from these plants alone is beautiful. Dark green, glossy, and graceful - about as tropical as it gets! But the real treat comes with the blooms. The blooms are a beautiful white color and the fragrance is incredibly strong. I grow brugmansia, jasmine, and several gardenia which are all fragrant plants but nothing compares to butterfly ginger.

Here are a few photos of my ginger.

The foliage alone is pretty beautiful.

This is the largest head of blooms I have ever had on my ginger. It's amazing!

I wish I could share the fragrance on this blog. 


A view from above. You can see my trachy frond in this distance.


And a view from below. The ginger blooms are everywhere this year.


Here is a similar look during the daytime.


And a few more close ups.





Thank you for looking. I hope you all enjoyed!





4 comments:

  1. Very nice thx. You overwinter the Hedychium coronarium inside and/or is this a hot summer temp location right?

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    1. Thank you! I let a hard freeze kill the Hedychium back to the ground and then I dig them up around January and keep the rhizomes my garage for the rest of the winter. I have had them return though during mild winters. They are about as cold tolerant as cannas. The summers here are very warm and humid. I have seen them grow in cooler climates as well. They don't need a lot of heat to thrive, but the longer the growing season the better!

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  2. Also which variety of the white butterfly is this and where did you purchase it? Thx

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    Replies
    1. It's a Hedychium coronarium. I got mine from the airport in Hawaii (they were being sold as very tiny little bulbs. Mine got huge in no time! I have them all over my yard now and they were 2 tiny plants back in 2011. You can find several on ebay at the moment.

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