Shell ginger
 

My aunt has a lot of huge ginger plants, she calls them "ginger lillies" but I looked up the blooms and they were listed as "shell ginger".

She told me I could have some, but when can I dig some up safely? Since it's Florida, do I need to wait until they die back some? Go ahead and dig them now?

The blooms are CRAZY gorgeous. Like orchid blooms but a huge cluster of them instead of a single bloom so it's just so impressive. Hers are growing in a heavily shaded area, within about a hundred yards of the Intercoastal Waterway(saltwater). She also said they seemed mostly unaffected by the freezes.

Re: Shell ginger
 

I never had problems transplanting ginger yet.. :^)

Re: Shell ginger
 

Go for it. I repot and transplant just about any tiome here in central Florida. Always nice to see the blooms and then do the transfer. If they look so good where they are it might be a good idea to duplicate that. Good growing.

Re: Shell ginger
 

If it is shell ginger, Alpinia Zerumbet, you can hardly damage them; especially in your zone. You can dig them up any time. You need to give this ginger plenty of space. Don't plant it next to a fence. The rhizomes get huge and this plant can pull the fence post out of the ground. I repeat, give this ginger plenty of room to roam because it will.

Steve

Re: Shell ginger
 

Listen to Steve My neighbor a few doors down planted this one next to his shed. Years later he actually had to remove the ginger and part of his shed.. The rhizome was unbelievable large.. I got a chunk he tossed in the trash the size of a gallon jug of milk . I planted it and one year later I removed the same rhizome it had more than doubled in size and lots of little smaller ones were in the soil .. I removed them all... No one could even have explained this to me ! Seeing it grow so large is scary :)

Re: Shell ginger
 

Thank you for all the replies!

Growing fast and spreading is actually excellent for what I want! It will be planted under a rather seedy tree, so it has plenty of space all the way around to spread to it's heart's content.

The only issue I have is that I'd love ot have it in my front yard and there's no shady area. Booo.

Re: Shell ginger
 

Grows in full sun also. But, it blooms on second year growth so if it gets frosted or freezes, no blooms the following summer. Most definitely root hardy in your zone down to low 20's.

Re: Shell ginger
 

I agree the shell ginger can be grown in sun. However, you will need to provide more water than when the plant is grown in shade. Gingers like to be kepto moist. The foilage will also end up being more of a light to medium green in color instead of the deep dark green when grown in more shade.

Re: Shell ginger
 

Oh okay! I read that the leaves would turn brown and die some in full sun.

Thank you to all with the advice!