Spiral Ginger (Costus Speciosus)

I received this spiral ginger from a very generous friend about 6 years ago. It has never reproduced, but the singular rhizome has never failed to survive lots of cold and dry times in dormancy. Last year it did not flower because it got a late start. This year it had one of its earliest starts to the season ever and I think it will be blooming in another 2 months!

Here's what it will look like when it's in bloom. 

While digging into my archives I found this beautiful Ice Cream banana that unfortunately did not respond well to overwintering. It would have been massive by now had it survived!

Spiral Ginger update!

I cut off one stalk on my Spiral ginger so it could focus on making healthy pups. Looks like it worked! A nice and healthy new pup is on the way. Can't wait until it gets big, they are beautiful plants.

My front yard in 8 weeks!

Here's the kind of growth that happened in my front yard in 8 weeks. 2 months of summer really does make an incredible difference. Unfortunately 2 months of winter has the opposite effect!

June 2nd, 2013... My Ensete Banana was pushing out it's second outdoor leaf of the season. My Brugmansia was pretty bare and my Alocasia hadn't even made a leaf yet. My European Fan palm was looking good though as was the Sabal Minor and oleander.

August 3rd, 2013... Lost count of the number of new leaves on the Ensete, but I think it's around 7 or so. The Brugmansia filled out really nicely and my Sabal Minor has grown a bit too! 

What was a bit disappointing was the butterfly ginger I planted in the front yard. If you look very carefully you might see one next to the spiral ginger in the 3rd pic on this post, but it definitely has not grown much. There is still time left though and while I'm not expecting blooms from this clump, I do think it will be in much better shape for next season.

Thanks for looking!

1st Post Ever, small sample of what I grow.

Hi! I've been growing tropical plants here in NYC for several years now and every year the collection gets bigger and bigger and the plants in the collection have also gotten a lot bigger too! This post is just a "small" summary of last season. 

Some of the plants you see in these pics are Buttefly ginger, Spiral ginger, Musa Saba, Musa Blue Java (Ice Cream Banana), mediterranean fan palm, mandevilla, peace lilies, dicksonia antarctica tree fern, Sky Glory Vine, Passion Vine, Elephant ears, Plumeria Divine (among other plumerias as well), Brugmansia "Ember Glow",  Frostproof Gardenia, oleanders, Sabal minor, Crape Myrtle "Zuni", Desert Rose, Hibiscus, papaya, and some others. Not included are most of my cold hardy palms (which I will post soon) and about half of my other tropicals.

I hope you enjoy this blog! I will try to update as regularly as I can.