Ginger, glorious ginger

[Zemedelec]

I ran into some people selling a couple of pots of the hedychium ginger they'd relocated in their garden yesterday ("garage sale day".) My God was it a gorgeous color: a deep, deep pink with a little orange in it--and those tall spikes ! I THINK it's a cultivar called Walt Disney that a nursery wanted to sell me for about $30. These people wanted $5 fo a foot-high, foot-wide plastic pot of the stuff. I can't wait to see the plants next summer--they were already mature, so they ought to bloom like crazy. zemedelec

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from [e-mail] (Zemedelec) contains these words:

Lucky you!!!

IMHO there's more fun and pleasure from that kind of unexpected treasure trove in a jumble sale or charity stall, than any other way of acquiring plants. Some of my best finds have been a small cutting rooted in a faded old yoghurt pot, or a chunk of root wrapped in wet newspaper; often without a label. Sometimes the seller has cut a flower from the mother-plant and laid it on the stall to show what's promised; sometimes the only name they know for the plant is a local nickname. Like a plant I bought for 50 pence, labelled "Stormin' Norman"; which is better known as aeonium schwartzkopf.

:-)

Janet

[Skirmishd]

I used to have one of those aeoniums - beautiful plants!

I bought a pregnant onion (Ornithogalum longibracteatum) for a buck at a garage sale over 15 years ago. I've given its babies to many people, and the plant puts up a tall flower stalk several times a year. When the little green and white flowers are done with, the stalk makes a good toy for the cats to chase.

[Zemedelec]

I love the local name. I bet it took off like a rocket! zemedelec