Week of June 14, 2020

The summer heat and rains have returned in a big way.  A group of plants In the Florida garden responding to this tropical weather is the GINGERS, a huge botanical family with a wild range of sizes, shapes, and flowers.  As gingers largely do not tolerate cold climates, they have been a joy to add to the Florida garden.  In fact, the peculiar thing about them is their late sprouting, with several varieties not emerging at all until early or mid-June.  This blog will deal only with the foliage they bring to our landscape.  Some serve as a ground cover, like the small peacock ginger with their patterned leaves under the Chickasaw plum trees in the back yard.  Others provide interest (and kitchen ginger) to the camellia bed by the swing.  The gingers’ main role is to provide a leafy backdrop to the back and side fences.  The spiral and red gingers have graceful helical spires about four feet tall.  One variety of spiral ginger is variegated white and green, living under the huge grape vine trunks.  Other variegated varieties have beautiful broad leaves which are translucent to backlighting their green and yellowish streaks. Totally occupying the back corner are the pine cone and shell gingers, with huge, graceful fronds over 7 feet tall.  They will flourish all summer and fall until cool weather, and die back immediately with even light frosts, opening up the landscape for the winter.  They are truly a distinguishing feature of the Florida garden.