Hedychium (Ginger Lilies)

The Ginger Lilies are among the most exotic looking herbaceous plants you can hope to grow in a British garden. Great thick, creeping, ginger smelling rhizomes send up 'canes' with bold, alternate leaves in two ranks, around the beginning of April here.
No Hedychium is a straightforward hardy perennial right across the UK. On the other hand, none of these is an out-and-out heated glasshouse subject. All need a fertile soil with plenty of water in the growing season. Some species are evergreen in the wild, but this is only possible under warm glass in Britain, even in Cornwall. We allow all ours to become fully dormant in winter, which has the advantage of preventing pests overwintering: others find that a tortrix moth caterpillar, which munches holes through the rolled young leaves, can get the upper hand if the plants are overwintered in growth. Once the stems have been frosted, we cut them off at the base and protect the rhizomes. For pot-grown stock, this entails keeping them faitly dry, and avoiding extremes of frost.  Plants grown in the open garden may need a protective mulch. What can you get away with in the open ground? The hardier ones are viable in the south of England and beyond, but microclimate and mulching are everything. Gardeners in central London or right on the South Coast can get away with a great deal. Some flower rather late, and early frosts can lose you the flowers, even if the plant survives. This is where a cool conservatory really helps, as well as providing a place to overwinter the dormant plants. Plants supplied have been growing in 2 litre pots since division in spring.

Hedychium densiflorum £5
A toughie, but atypical. The flowers are many and small, packed into narrow 15cm spikes. They are a lovely intense burnt orange colour, but don't have any real fragrance. Free flowering, and one of the first to flower. Came to us as 'Assam Orange', but that has rather looser inflorescences and flowers a more watery shade.
Hedychium 'Stephen' £6
Collected by Tony Schilling in Nepal, it is often considered (notably by Schilling himself) a form of densiflorum. Flowers larger than typical densiflorum, cream with orange, and lightly fragrant. Very nice, quite hardy, but slow to propagate.
Hedychium coccineum 'Tara' AGM £6
Pretty hardy, and early too. It has more typical spidery flowers in orange red. It's showy and popular. Schilling's again.
Hedychium spicatum 'Singalila' BSWJ 2303 £6
A form with nicely bronze tinted leaves,  broader, and up to 2m tall, from N. India.
Hedychium yunnanense £5
Notable for being just as chunky as the others, but much shorter: palest yellow flower with red stamen. The first to flower here.
Hedychium sp. coll. Keith Rushforth £5
Broad leaved, quite tall, midway between spicatum and yunnanense; very hardy.
Hedychium coronarium £5
Also deliciously fragrant, with pretty, pale flowers, needing the mildest garden or winter protection to flower before the frosts.
Hedychium 'Goldflame' £5
Fragrant white flowers with a bold yellow splash; around 1.2m tall. One of Tom Wood's many interesting hybrids from Florida. We find that it survives the winter well, but tends to be very late flowering and so benefits from conservatory conditions.
Hedychium 'Elizabeth' £5
Another Wood hybrid, with lovely raspberry pink flowers, marked orange, but again it really needs to be inside, warm, to get worthwhile flowering.