Quote:
Originally Posted by Randy4ut
Chong,
Please help me as I have trouble telling hedychiums apart without a bloom. Could you please explain how you can tell that this is indeed a coronarium. I have several coronarium and I can't tell it apart from several others that I have... Thanks for the help as I am always looking at learning more about identification.
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It was an educated guess. H. Coronarium species is the most common ginger sold in nurseries because of proven cold hardiness (Zone 7-11), sturdy growth, and usually the most reasonably priced. They also have a larger leaf growth habit with lighter green color, almost banana like or canna like. This is the basis of my educated guess. I can spot a ginger plant of the Coronarium family fairly well in a group of gingers. But within the Coronarium family, I would have to see the flower to be absolutely certain. The ones that I have is probably all white with a pale yellow throat. Unless the nursery has a tag specifically identifying the variety, if it's labeled only as Hedychium, in all probability, it is a Coronarium.
Other Hedychiums have distinct leaf growth habits and color/pattern that are different from the Coronarium, and outside of being able to group them by family, I would not be able to tell which is which. Here are 3 examples, they may be some of what you have:
"Unusual plants: Hedychium"