At last ....

Pin It

Despite the rain and gloom, a kitchen floor covered in flour and fingers sticky from icing about a hundred little biscuits, my day ended on a particularly happy note. I discovered a bud on a plant that has not flowered for three years.

If you are not a fellow gardener, don't care for ornamentals and are not bothered about scent, then do not trouble yourself with reading any further.


If you are still with me, then let me tell you that the plant in question is this:

Hedychium

It is of course a gingerlily, probably hedychium gardnerianum, if you know better, please let me know.

This plant is dear to me for several reasons. First of all because of its stunning good looks it would not look out of place in a tropical border, the species being native to India, Nepal and Bhutan. Then there's the fact that it is tender and therefore a bit more difficult to grow in my climate zone. There's also the small snippet that I got this as a sort of souvenir from Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly; I admired the plant during a visit (the Isles of Scilly are a magical part of the UK and I would love to return) and the gardener broke off a bit of rhizone, gave me some instructions for looking after it during the rest of my holiday. I think I was so chuffed to get to take a bit home, that I uncharacteristically forgot to ask for its full name. Last but by no means least is that when it flowers it looks magnificent. My lovely gingerlily will throw up a flower spike about a foot tall per stem.  This is when the fun begins: the scent is unbelievable. I am not able to describe it, my talents do not stretch far enough to do it justice.

Let me say just this: I shall watch my clump of gingerlilies every day now, count the number of flowerbuds I spot and wait with much anticipation as the spikes develop and ripen. I have managed to keep it going for some seven or eight years now and whilst it has flowered after three years, the last few years have not brought me any flowers at all. The winters have been so severe that the plant has regularly died back and new shoots have not re-emerged until end of May or even June, far too late to grow to six foot and then develop a flower.

I could google a good image of a flowering plant but I will keep you as much as myself in suspense to see whether this will be the year when I have those glorious beauties fill my small front garden with their beauty and scent.

If you do get to see hedychiums in a garden, please make a special effort to seek them out, they are worth it. And please share yiour thoughts with me.